Christopher Skase was a businessman born in Melbourne in 1948 and died in 2001. During his life he married twice and had a stepdaughter. His career was established first as a stockbroker, then as a financial journalist. However, his entrepreneurial career began when he purchased a small tin mining company called Quintex in the mid-1970s. This company became a household name within 10 years and Skase purchased the national network Channel Seven and controlled 66% of the Australian television market. In the 1980s he was one of the most glamorous entrepreneurs and Quintex was worth 1.5 billion dollars. He also owned 5 resorts, two of them called 'Mirage' in Queensland. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Although he wanted to be known for his life of luxury and good taste, he often appeared as a symbol of vulgar excess. For his 40th birthday party in 1988 and the company Christmas party cost $450,000. In 1989, Skase's attempt to buy the MGM-United Artists film studio for $1.5 billion failed due to costly lawsuits. He could not pay the first part of the payment ($25 million). The prolonged pilots' strike hurt its tourism interests, and rising interest rates and a credit crunch helped unblock Qintex. Skase was forced to sell half of its resorts to Japanese investors. During this period he also began transferring money to foreign bank accounts in July. In October, Skase began arguing with Quintex's board of directors, demanding that the board pay $13.5 million to a private company he owned, but they refused. However, the money had already been withdrawn. He also threatened to leave if he didn't get a pay raise, but they refused. Qintex then collapsed, leading to the collapse of the State Bank of Victoria. Ultimately, Skase had personal debts of $172 million and business debts of $1.7 billion. In 1991 he fled to Spain, a country without an extradition treaty with Australia, and mocked the authorities and their allegations of 60 criminal charges and debts of A$1.5 billion. He topped Australia's "most wanted" list for 10 years but, in what became known as the "Skase Chase", successfully defeated all attempts to bring him to justice, claiming he was too ill to travel..