The Press Council has upheld a complaint about an article headed "Adler owes it all to his wife – How Lyndi has built a business empire" in The Sunday Telegraph on 29 December 2013. The article mentioned Rodney Adler’s imprisonment in 2002 on charges relating to his directorship of HIH Insurance. It said he still had nine years before being allowed to be a director or manage a corporation, but his wife Lyndi Adler “is building up a sizeable business portfolio” and “has taken on 14 new roles in different companies, many of them in June and July last year”. It also said: “Many of the total 34 companies Mrs Adler has a role in are investment and venture capital vehicles, once Adler’s passion.”
Mr Adler complained it was inaccurate and unfair to say his wife was building a “business empire” and to publish an article which could be read as an invitation to regulators to review his conduct. He said most of the companies were concerned with family matters such as trusts for their children, and did not amount to an “empire”. He also complained that several other statements in the article were inaccurate, including that he “spent 2½ years in jail for his role in the $5 billion collapse of insurer HIH”. He complained that the article breached his privacy and that a subsequent correction in the newspaper was not sufficiently complete, prompt or prominent.
The newspaper said it was reasonable and in the public interest to report and examine the increase in Ms Adler’s directorships and business activities at a time when her husband was still prevented by court orders from directing or managing a company. The publication said as soon as it became aware Mr Adler’s offences did not relate to the collapse of HIH Insurance, and of its inaccuracies in reporting his investments and his role in court action about the synagogue, it had published a correction. The publication did not refute Mr Adler’s assertion that his wife’s directorships were largely of vehicles for her family’s investments which did not involve other people’s money. In the absence of any evidence of wider business activities, the Council concluded the description of Mrs Adler’s business activities was unfair. It also concluded that the description of Mr Adler’s conviction was inaccurate and unfair, as the judge explicitly said it did not relate to the company’s collapse. Accordingly, these aspects of the complaints were upheld.
The Council did not consider, however, that the privacy of Mr Adler and his family was breached by the article. It also said several other statements did not amount to serious inaccuracies. The newspaper’s delay in correction was due to understandable miscommunications and the prominence was sufficient because, although not toward the front of the newspaper, it was prominently headed “Correction: Rodney Adler”. Accordingly, these aspects of the complaint were not upheld.