Mark Latham’s ex-partner Nathalie Matthews has denied receiving insider trading tips and a $145,000 payment from controversial billionaire WiseTech global founder Richard White.
In a citizens’ right of reply tabled in the NSW upper house last week, Matthews hit back at a series of incendiary claims made against her by Latham under parliamentary privilege last November.
During that speech, Latham referred to White as Matthews’ “new pay-for-sex friend”, and claimed that the software mogul had paid her $145,000, and “tipped her into a penny stock that was bound to appreciate quickly”.
In her reply, Matthews accused Latham of seriously damaging her professional reputation. She denied receiving money or insider information from White, and said she had not received any correspondence or legal notices from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission relating to insider trading.
Matthews rejected claims made by Latham that a businessman had paid for her to travel to London and stay with him at a Notting Hill hotel, while providing her with food, clothing, and a return trip to Paris.
Matthews said the statement was false and defamatory as she never had sexual relations with the businessman, and paid the cost of her flight to London herself.
She also denied claims made by Latham that she had punched him in the head during a “zombie-like drunken and drugged attack”.
“During his speech, Mr Latham invoked my name on 44 occasions in a way that readily identifies me and made a series of false and defamatory statements about my personal and commercial affairs,” Matthews said.
She said many of the claims made by Latham were of an extremely serious nature because he accused her of breaching multiple Commonwealth and NSW laws, and entering into sex-for-money arrangements.
Latham’s fellow upper house MP and former One Nation colleague Rod Roberts sought to block the tabling of Matthews’ response, arguing that it was frivolous, vexatious and contained inaccuracies.
Matthews’ claims follow a bitter and ongoing falling-out between the former Labor leader and his ex-partner.
Last July, Matthews filed an application for a private Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) against Latham, alleging that he had subjected her to a sustained pattern of emotional, physical and financial abuse, including pressuring her into degrading sex acts. Latham denied the accusations.
The pair were unable to resolve the AVO application, and the matter is listed for a three-day hearing, beginning on Wednesday.
White, who stepped down as WiseTech boss in 2024 after allegations of sexual and corporate misconduct only to return as executive chair months later after engineering a boardroom coup, has also been dragged into the highly publicised breakdown of Latham and Matthews’ private relationship.
Last year, Matthews was arrested and charged with revenge porn offences, to which she has pleaded not guilty.
White, meanwhile, remains in control of WiseTech, the company he co-founded in 1994 and turned into a $14 billion logistics software giant, despite being trailed by a hum of controversy.
In October 2024, he attempted to bankrupt Sydney businesswoman Linda Rogan, who alleged in court that White had offered to invest in her business in return for sex – allegations which White denied. The matter was settled outside court.
White stepped down as the company’s chief executive later that month, after this masthead reported on accusations of bullying and inappropriate conduct against him – again denied by White – only to return as executive chair in February 2025.
WiseTech’s offices were raided last year by the Australian Federal Police and ASIC as part of a probe into alleged insider trading by White and three other employees. The investigation is ongoing.
White, Matthews and Latham were all contacted for comment.
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Kishor Napier-Raman is a senior business writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously he worked as a CBD columnist and reporter in the federal parliamentary press gallery.Connect via X or email.