00:02From the air, Bathler's ambition stretched as far as the eye could see.
00:07In 2021, a Bathler subsidiary struck a deal with landowner Michael Ryan
00:12to buy this vast parcel of land for almost $40 million.
00:17But Bathler repeatedly missed settlement deadlines.
00:21It was really a ducking and weaving game as I saw it.
00:25In the end, the seller, Mr Ryan, agreed to finance part of the purchase himself
00:29and other Bathler-linked land deals also ended up in court.
00:34It was really awful to see that it wasn't just Mike Light,
00:37but then other people coming out to say, this is happening to me as well.
00:42In 2024, a judge described its evidence of financing as flimsy and unconvincing,
00:49yet the wider Bathler group had previously reported billions of dollars in assets.
00:54They were carrying significant numbers of properties that didn't have development approval
01:00and therefore couldn't be developed.
01:02And the developers' later accounts show.
01:05In 2025, the group reported a $62 million profit,
01:09but its operations used $150 million more cash than it had brought in.
01:15Private credit lender La Trobe Financial says it was becoming more cautious.
01:19What we saw was some signs, slower progress on our project,
01:23and just a few signs that suggested we need to proceed with more caution on that borrower.
01:28Bathler went into administration in August with about $3.4 billion in debts.
01:33It blamed slowing sales, falling confidence and rising costs.
01:38Its administrators say investigations remain complex and ongoing.
