The corporate regulator has been provided with an explosive phone recording which casts doubt on controversial billionaire Richard White’s defence to insider trading allegations.
“You’ll get at least 5 million net cash, tax-free,” White is heard telling an ex-employee in a call made in early February 2025.
The employee had raised allegations with the WiseTech Global board about underpayment, inappropriate conduct by White and emails sent by his wife, Zena Nasser, to the employee’s work email.
The phone call raises questions about whether White was acting in a management position or as a consultant to the company after he had been forced to step down as chief executive in October 2024 following a slew of damaging allegations about his inappropriate conduct towards women.
The nature of the billionaire’s position within the company is central to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s ongoing investigation into potential insider trading by White, who offloaded about 1.87 million shares between December 2024 and February 2025.
WiseTech directors had warned White in December 2024 not to sell any more shares as they considered him key management personnel.
White’s estimated $229 million share sell-off came when the global logistics company was in a blackout period, during which time company executives, directors and key personnel are banned from buying or selling shares.
The company informed the ASX that White would take up a “full-time, long-term consulting role” with pay of $1 million a year.
White has justified his share sales, saying he obtained legal advice and was a consultant, not an executive, during the relevant period.
The phone recording, which has been provided to the corporate regulator, appears to show White believed he was still able to call the shots at WiseTech.
Trading records show White traded more than 200,000 shares in the two business days before and after the Sunday call.
In the call to the woman, whom the Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review have not named for privacy reasons, White can be heard attempting to negotiate a settlement regarding her complaint to the board.
“There’s a deed which we use with all employees, substantial employees, called the deed of settlement and release,” White told the woman on February 2, 2025. “It just says, ‘I’ve settled, everything’s paid, there’s no other issues outstanding, I’m walking away clean’.”
White told the woman he was going to pay her the next day and she would get at least $5 million tax-free. In the call, he said WiseTech would pay somewhere near $350,000 and he would make up the difference from his personal funds.
“All you’ve gotta do is tell them that you’re gonna withdraw your claim and that you’ll sign a deed of settlement. I’ll take … Richard Dammery [WiseTech’s then chairman] through the exact payments and it’ll be a termination … which will not be a for cause, there’ll be no claim against you that you didn’t perform or anything like that. It would just be a standard separation document,” White told the woman.
During the call, White told the employee that “the board’s gonna sign that you’re a good leaver and you’re done …”
White also complained to the woman about corporate governance. “Honestly, this whole governance process is so bad, it turns companies into average by the way it functions.”
In the phone conversation, White also disclosed that another woman who consulted to the WiseTech board had made a complaint against him and was demanding $30 million or she would go to the media.
“The problem is someone can say, ‘I don’t care, I feel injured. I’m going to go to the press unless you pay me $30 million’,” White said in the call. “It’s irrational … it’s extortion.”
In October 2025, a year after he stepped down, ASIC raided the Sydney headquarters of WiseTech as part of its investigation into potential insider trading by White and three other WiseTech employees.
The billionaire had been forced to resign as chief executive in October 2024 following multiple allegations of inappropriate conduct. That month, lurid headlines followed his legal stoush with wellness entrepreneur Linda Rogan, who claimed White expected her to have sex with him in exchange for an investment in her business.
The claims were made after White sued Rogan over a $92,000 furniture bill. Rogan then claimed she was stuck with the bill after White’s wife, Nasser, a former criminal lawyer, discovered the affair and kicked her rival out of the $13.1 million Vaucluse house White had secretly purchased for Rogan in September 2022.
Subsequent investigations by the Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review revealed White had paid for a multimillion-dollar house for an employee with whom he had been in a relationship and that he was selling millions of WiseTech shares to pay his ex-wife.
In April 2025, the mastheads revealed White reached a settlement with a third woman, a former employee, who had raised allegations against him that he had provided her with financial assistance and help with her visa in return for sex.
The board did not accept White’s personal attempts to settle the matter with the employee in the February 2025 phone call.
Three weeks after this phone conversation, there was a mass exodus of WiseTech’s board. Four independent directors – Lisa Brock, Michael Malone, Fiona Pak-Poy and chairman Dammery – resigning due to “intractable differences in the board and differing views around the ongoing role of the founder and founding CEO, Richard White”.
In February 2025, the then-independent directors wanted to release the findings of an external report conducted by Seyfarth Shaw. However, White threatened to sue the independent directors as he regarded the findings defamatory and accused them of leaking to the media.
Following the mass resignation, the new board released partial findings. They found White was “not fully transparent and candid” with the investigation, and was “misleading about personal matters concerning the ending of the relationship”. However, the board took no action against him.
By the time the female employee eventually signed a settlement agreement with WiseTech, White had returned as executive chairman. The employee’s allegations remain unproven. The settlement negotiations by White, and later by the company, did not make any admissions of wrongdoing.
The corporate regulator declined to comment on its ongoing investigation. White and WiseTech also declined to comment.
Prior to the scandals erupting around White and WiseTech in October 2024, shares were trading about $135 per share. At the close of business on Friday, the shares were at $42.84. White, who owns a third of WiseTech’s shares, has had billions of dollars wiped from his fortune.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
