All Media - Business Journalism - Winner

Anthony Klan, The Australian, "Fincorp Collapse"

In March this year, Anthony Klan began a series of investigations into Fincorp, a $200 million high-risk finance group, which revealed its hollow core and ultimately led to its collapse.

As Klan dug deeper, his questions uncovered a company on the brink – all but one Fincorp director had resigned, and three key executives jumped ship in a matter of weeks.

When Klan posed questions to the remaining director, the businessman opted to shut down the company rather than respond.

The collapse raised big questions for thousands of investors – mostly retirees lured by heavy advertising on commercial radio – and the corporate watchdog, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). ASIC was forced to investigate Fincorp’s collapse and has since proposed new controls for similar high-risk companies.

Klan has been a full-time business journalist with The Australian since 2004. He started in the property round and currently specialises in investigating corporate crime. Before joining The Australian, Klan juggled his studies at the University of Queensland with freelance writing for Fairfax Interactive. He was also business editor of the university’s newspaper, the Queensland Independent.

Judges’ comments

Anthony Klan’s coverage of the Fincorp collapse led the reporting effort of this story. His written questions to the company acted as a catalyst for the collapse of Fincorp, which had 7000 investors. This in turn put pressure on regulators to change their methods of assessment of property-based finance companies.