Payne's Properties (1958–62) Reid Murray Group (1959–62) Adams Group (1973–93)
Criminal charges
Fraud
Criminal penalty
9-year prison sentence (5 years served)
Spouse
Ruby Adams (m. 1952)
Children
1
Maltese businessman (born 1930)
Raymond Lawrence Adolf Borg (born 14 October 1930) was a Maltese businessman active in Australia and Canada during the second half of the 20th Century. His career became embroiled in major corporate scandals beginning in the early 1960s. He played a key role in what became the largest bankruptcy in Australian history. After serving time in prison he fled to Toronto where he built up North America's largest medical waste incineration and transportation company. His whereabouts beyond 1993 are unknown.
Borg and his future wife, Ruby Adams, after winning the auction of their first home in Caulfield North, 1952
Raymond Borg was born on 14 October 1930 in Cairo, Egypt, the only child of Alfred Borg and Louise Borg. He was of Maltese decent. He grew up in poverty and met his future wife, Ruby Argyro Adams, at a party in 1949. Later that year, Borg migrated to Australia with Ruby and her parents, settling in Melbourne. Reflecting on the move, he later stated that he believed Australia “had the brightest future of any country.”[1] Borg began his working life as a clerk with the state-owned Victorian Railways while studying accounting part-time. In early 1952, Borg and Ruby were featured in the The Herald newspaper after purchasing a dilapidated Victorian-era terrace in Caulfield North for a price well above its market value. Commenting on the purchase, Borg told a journalist, “It may be a bit broken down, but it looks like a palace to us.”[2] The couple renovated the property themselves before and later sold it at a profit, an experience that marked the beginning of Borg's career in realestate.[3]
Paynes Properties
After completing his accounting studies, Borg applied for a part-time cleaning position at the Paynes Bon Marché city department store but was rejected due to a lack of experience. He subsequently left Victorian Railways to work for a private insurance company. Borg later returned to Paynes as a canvasser, selling electronics and soft goods on Bourke Street.[4] Despite maintaining his involvement in real estate, he proved highly successful in the role. His aptitude was soon noticed by Robert Reid, the managing director of Paynes’ parent company, who took a particular interest in Borg’s idea for a masterplanned "satellite town" at Sunbury. At the time, Reid was seeking diversification opportunities for the retail conglomerate and was influenced by Borg’s proposal to expand into the construction and sale of affordable homes within planned housing estates.[5] In 1958, Reid decided to pursue diversification into the expanding post-war home-building industry and moved to formally incorporate a new subsidiary of his retail and finance conglomerate, Reid Murray Holdings. The company was founded in July 1958 under the name Paynes Properties, and was managed by Borg.[6][7]
Announcement of the Sunbury Satellite Town attended by the Premier, April 1959
The firm’s principal objective was to “build as many houses as possible”, either on clients’ land or within company-owned housing estates. Its business model allowed homes to be constructed with low or no down payment, making them particularly attractive to newly arrived migrants and young families.[8] Early residential subdivisions undertaken by Paynes Properties included the 80-lot Louisiana Estate at Mount Waverley and the 100-lot Cameron Estate at Burwood.[9][10] Streets within the Cameron Estate were named after executives and associates of Reid Murray Holdings, including Ruby Street (named for Borg’s wife), O’Grady Street (after the managing director), and Wilkinson Street (after the assistant managing director).[11] There was also a 200-lot subdivision in Metung on the Gippsland Lakes, and a 190-lot subdivision in Forest Hill at Mahoneys Road.[12][13] Borg Crescent, a suburban street in Scoresby, was named in Borg's honour and forms part of the 155-lot Mountain View Estate. Smaller estates were subdivided at Whittlesea, Sunshine, Ferntree Gully and Rosanna.[14][15]
Following largely satisfactory returns from these initial developments, Paynes Properties began shifting more attention towards Borg's pet project: the master-planned satellite town for western Sunbury.[16] The proposal was formally announced at a buffet dinner held at the historic Menzies Hotel in April 1959, and was attended by several high-profile guests, including Victorian Premier Henry Bolte, who controversially described the scheme as “wonderful, bold and visionary.”[17][18] The development, known as the Sunbury Satellite Town, was presented to the public through a large commissioned diorama illustrating its proposed civic and shopping centre. Plans included 10,000 homes, 40 industrial sites, six shopping centres, as well as schools, hotels, cinemas, churches, hospitals, clinics, offices, a civic centre, and recreational facilities. The town was to be built in six sections, referred to as “neighbourhoods,” each designed around a central shopping area surrounded by residential housing.[19]
Within weeks of the public announcement of the Sunbury scheme, Borg was appointed a director of Reid Murray Holdings, becoming the youngest board member of a company of that scale in Australia. At the time, Reid Murray Holdings ranked among Australia’s ten largest and most influential corporations.[1][20] Coinciding with his board appointment, Borg appeared at a press conference held at the Hotel Australia to announce Paynes Properties’ involvement in the proposed £6 million Forest Hill Drive-In Shopping Centre, which was promoted as an ultra-modern retail development.[21][22] Construction commenced later that year under a partnership with Paul Fayman and Stanley Korman; however, the half-built development collapsed with Korman’s Stanhill Group in 1961.[23][24] Another unsuccessful proposal from this period was Australialand, an ambitious entertainment project. Borg, Fayman and a consortium of private investors acquired extensive land holdings at Laverton with the intention of developing an Australian counterpart to Disneyland. Announced in 1960, the proposal attracted widespread media attention but was ultimately deemed financially unviable and abandoned during a government-imposed credit squeeze.[25][26]
Massive flaws in the Sunbury scheme were apparent from the outset, and Paynes Properties failed to attract other developers with sufficient capital to back the project.[27][28] Despite this, the company continued subdividing land at Sunbury with little success. In April 1960, Labor politician Leo Fennessy scrutinised Paynes Properties for building only "45-or-so" homes instead of the 1000 that were meant to have been completed.[29][30] The leader of the opposition Clive Stoneham told the house of representatives that the Sunbury scheme appeared to be a "swindle".[31] Premier Bolte's earlier support for the project was criticised, leading him to deny endorsement of the project and instead claim that he had in fact discouraged Borg. This was in contrast to a tape recording supposedly in possession of Paynes Properties.[32] Following the parliamentary attacks, public faith in the proposal began to dwindle. Then, throughout 1961, Reid Murray faced a severe liquidity crisis.[33][34]
The situation worsened until December 1962, when Reid Murray's bubble burst leaving 80,000 investors in shambles.[35][36] Subsequently, Labor MP William MacDonald called on a government investigation into Reid Murray, claiming that it had "dropped the greatest bomb on our investment market in 20 years". Around the same time, Borg received a writ claiming false advertising by his firm. Sunbury Developments, which had entered a contract with Paynes Properties, alleged that Borg did not intend to, or was not going to build the satellite town, and that several untrue claims had been made during the advertising campaign.[37]
Media storm, 1960s
Reid Murray collapse
By mid-1963 the Reid Murray group was collapsing under a debt of some £25.8 million (equivalent to $283.5m in 2025).[38] By this point, the Victorian Government had formally commissioned investigators to probe the Reid-Murray collapse. Their report, tabled in Parliament, bluntly accused Borg of using his control of Payne’s Properties to fabricate profits and divert company funds for his family’s benefit. Inspectors calculated that “Borg interests received in cash from Federated Pays Group funds in excess of £70,000".[39] They noted a suspiciously dated sale document that had been back-dated to inflate profits, and “loan” advances to enable directors to buy company shares. In particular, auditors recorded that Payne’s Properties had made unsecured loans to a private firm, whose directors and principal shareholders were revealed to be Borg and his wife.[40] Many of these intra-group loans (over £100,000 to directors) were in breach of company law and possibly “irrecoverable”.[40]
They also found that Borg had directed “a series of dealings primarily designed to produce fictitious profits,” falsifying the accounts to cover short. In one scheme, Payne’s Properties paid an excessive price to acquire the Louisiana group of companies from Borg’s relatives, effectively transferring about £150,000 of group assets to Borg interests with little real consideration.[39] The investigations led to criminal charges. In 1965 Borg went on trial in Melbourne’s Supreme Court. A jury found him guilty on multiple counts: four counts of fraudulently misapplying cheques (totalling about £20,000) and one count of forging a sales agreement. A judge sentenced him to nine years’ imprisonment with hard labour, specifying a minimum of six years before parole.[41]
The court also permanently disqualified Borg from holding an estate agent’s licence. He received nine-years in Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison, but served a minimum sentence of five years before release. He told the Bankruptcy Court in 1966: "Being in gaol is a tremendous shock. You can survive only by forgetting the past and not thinking about the future".[41] While Borg served his sentence, other related matters made headlines. Press reports of the era noted financial difficulties for his family: newspapers claimed his parents Alfred and Louise Borg had incurred a large tax assessment (about £116,000) and that their Pascoe Vale home was robbed of £9,000, leading Borg to offer a £3,000 reward for information. In one court hearing, a witness even alleged Borg had threatened to have him knifed if he testified. These accounts appeared in the contemporary press, although they were not central to the official findings.[42]
Release from prison
After his release from prison, Borg vanished from the Australian business scene. He would later re-emerged in North America under the assumed name Ray Adams.[43] He then built a successful career in the private healthcare sector – notably by the late 1970s he was known as the owner of Decom Medical Waste Systems, which controversially operated incinerators in the both United States and Canada.[44] A 1977 Toronto Globe and Mail investigation finally exposed his past: after a year-long probe reporters confirmed that Ray Adams was in fact Raymond Lawrence Adolf Borg.[45] The Globe reported that Borg/Adams had immigrated to Canada in 1973 under a false identity, denying his criminal history.[46] Following several high-profile lawsuits in the late 1980 and early '90s, Borg disappeared from the public eye once again and is believed to have fled to Tunisia.[38]
References
12[Biographical clipping] "Now, at 28, he's a director". The Herald. 4 June 1959 – via University of Melbourne Archives, JB Were & Son Company Research Files: Reid Murray Holdings Limited.
↑Borg, Raymond Lawrence Adolph (3 November 1955). "Mr. Borg must buy a house in Brunswick or Coburg this week". The Age. p.19 – via State Library Victoria: Proquest.
↑Moon, Peter (18 March 1977). "The lucrative life of a non-existent man". The Globe and Mail. p.1.
↑Moon, Peter (18 March 1977). "Scapegoat was needed for Australian bankruptcy, Borg says of 9-year jail term". The Globe and Mail. p.2.
↑Letter to shareholders. Robert Reid & Co Ltd & David Murray Holdings Ltd. 11 November 1957 – via University of Melbourne Archives, JB Were & Son research files.
↑Brown, Donald (17 August 1957). "New retail era seen". Sunday Mail– via University of Melbourne Archives.
↑Third Annual Report. Reid Murray Holdings. 1960 – via University of Melbourne Archives.
↑"Seventy building sites in the Louisiana Estate, Mount Waverley, were sold privately during the week...". The Age. 3 November 1958. p.8.
↑"Burwood - Cameron Estate". The Age. 31 January 1959. p.42 – via State Library Victoria.
↑"£208,000 in House Contracts Sale". The Age. 23 February 1959. p.8 – via State Library Victoria.
↑"Free blocks offer helped sales of land". The Age. 29 June 1959. p.10.
↑[Press kit] Forest Hill Drive-In Shopping Centre. Payne's Properties Pty Ltd. August 1958.
↑"Forced realisation sale". The Age. 8 June 1963. p.39.
↑"After the Investigator". The Bulletin. 88 (4515): 66. 17 September 1966 – via National Library Australia.
↑Sorell, John (29 October 1969). "Peddling Paul takes a new change". University of Melbourne Archives, JB Were & Son company research files: Hanover Holdings.
↑"Stanhill may wind up soon". The Age. 3 March 1962. p.1.
↑"£5 million fun park may be built on big Laverton site". The Age. 4 October 1960. p.5 – via State Library Victoria.
↑Anderson, Roger (24 January 1960). "Reid-Murray glamor is only skin deep". Sunday Telegraph.
↑Interim report of an Investigation Under Division 4 of the Companies Act 1961 into the affairs of Reid Murray holdings Ltd and certain of its subsidiary companies including Reid Murray Acceptance Ltd. Legislative Assembly Victoria. 1963 – via Public Record Office Victoria VPRS 3253/P0000, 336.
↑"Scheme 'crazy' assembly told". The Age. 28 April 1960. p.5 – via State Library Victoria.
↑"Probe Sunbury homes, Government asked". The Sun. 13 April 1960 – via University of Melbourne Archives.
↑"Land scheme appears swindle, House told". The Sun. 28 April 1960 – via University of Melbourne Archives.
↑"Bolte did back scheme, says Sunbury chief". The Herald. 28 April 1960 – via University of Melbourne Archives.
↑"Countering the squeeze: Liquidity crisis a big test for Reid Murray". Financial Review. 18 May 1961 – via University of Melbourne Archives, JB Were & Son company research files: Reid Murray Holdings.
↑"What's wrong with Reid Murray?". JB Were & Son. November 1961 – via University of Melbourne Archives.
↑"Reid Murray balloon bursts". The Bulletin. 8 December 1962 – via University of Melbourne Archives.
↑"Reid Murray Loss £2.5m and Likely to Reach £4m". The Age. 30 November 1962 – via University of Melbourne Archives.
↑"Company alleges false claims in Sunbury land deal". The Age. 11 December 1962. p.5.
12Winkler, Tim (17 May 1993). "Reid Murray developing well after 1963 collapse". The Age. pp.25–26.
12"Arrest of former Reid Murrary man". The Age. 2 September 1964. p.1.
12"Auditors Report to Shareholders on Reid Murray Group". The Age. 31 July 1963. p.11.
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