Richard White: Billionaire Wisetech entrepreneur settles court battle with alleged ex-lover Linda Rogan

Billionaire tech entrepreneur Richard White has settled a Federal Court battle with an alleged former lover after winning secrecy orders over parts of his case.

Less than a day after the other directors of its Wisetech flagship said they were investigating matters related to his private life, the company’s top shareholder and chief executive has reached a truce with beautician Linda Rogan.

Ms Rogan’s Federal Court application to strike out a bankruptcy notice was set out to test her claims about Mr White’s behavior and her right to use secret documents which allegedly contained evidence of wrongdoing.

The logistics technology group declined to discuss the settlement in Federal Court on Tuesday despite Mr. White with Ms Rogan was at the center of the scandal surrounding its chief executive.

“It’s all personal stuff,” a WiseTech spokeswoman said.

Faced with reports of Ms Rogan’s allegations and linking them to claims made in 2020 by another woman, WiseTech told the stock exchange on Monday it was “reviewing the full range of matters”.

WiseTech said its board was “actively seeking further information and receiving external advice”.

“It is aware of the potential impacts on the company and will carefully assess all relevant factors in the assessment,” he told the stock exchange.

White is the founder of WiseTech and has a 34.4% stake, valued at $12.5 billion on Tuesday.

Ms Rogan launched her action in the Federal Court on September 12 after Mr. White asked her to pay $90,000 or face bankruptcy proceedings.

Federal Court documents reveal that Mr. White won orders on October 2 to suppress parts of affidavits submitted by Ms Rogan in support of her application.

The suppression order was based on Mr. White that the affidavit contained communications protected by legal privilege that were inadvertently disclosed to the alleged former lover.

Ms Rogan’s legal team told Judge Ian Jackman they were likely to challenge the privilege claims on the basis that the communications reflected misconduct.

Judge Jackman suppressed the controversial material until the day the matter went to trial in February on the grounds that legal professional privilege was paramount to the “general need for open justice”.

Battling the threat of bankruptcy, Ms Rogan had claimed the alleged debt related to luxury furniture for an apartment in Sydney’s eastern suburbs that Mr. White had bought to live there.

Ms Rogan’s legal team claimed the billionaire’s alleged lover was evicted when their relationship was discovered by his wife Zena Nasser, a high-profile Sydney lawyer who reportedly married the billionaire during the austral winter

This week’s peace deal with Ms Rogan comes after Mr White reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with another alleged former lover.

WiseTech said a board subcommittee looked into the woman’s allegations four years ago, but was dismissed from the matter after receiving denials from Mr. White.

After falling more than 13 percent on Monday when details of White’s battle with Ms. Rogan broke, the stock rallied 4 percent to end trading on Tuesday at $108.72.

Stock market disclosures show that Mr. White sold 1.39 million shares of WiseTech between September 20 and October 17 at an average price of $132.82.