Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

How about this for a neuron lob .. lol .. digression way downunder .. from Morans there to one who was in the news years ago here ..

Westpac .. Westpac worked closely with Doug Moran .. insert from link ..
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Moran and Westpac

From early times Doug Moran had close associations with the banks who supported him. Westpac joined him in his grand plan to build the failed Taj Mahal hospitals. The market crash in the 1980s did not help. Moran got the better of these deals in a protracted court battle and Westpac was left with most of the losses. Moran saw nursing homes as a stepping stone into a hospital empire.

Mar 1993 Profitable Westpac relationship sours

The failed venture on the Gold Coast has put an end to the expansionist plans of Moran and family - for the time being.
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His main company is the Moran Health Care Group Pty Ltd which reported a loss of $2.3 million in the 1991 financial year. The group comprises more than 25 subsidiaries in the nursing home, private hospital, travel, property and real estate fields.
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Step by careful step, Doug Moran, 68, former real estate salesman, had built his business over 40 years - from a Mums and Dads nursing home outfit into a medical conglomerate now encompassing six retirement villages, 22 nursing homes and 10 private hospitals. He planned to go further, developing medical Taj Mahals - townships of villas, hotels, spas and hospitals - in three States.
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All along, his Moran group had grown with the help of Westpac's subsidiary, Australian Guarantee Corporation. AGC was his financier for decades and the partnership seemed set to continue forever - until the property crashes of the 1990s. Now Westpac is trying to dispose of all AGC's ill-fated joint property ventures, and the Moran-AGC team marriage has ended up in the casualty ward.

DOUG MOVES ON Australian Financial Review March 5, 1993

Oct 1994 Nursing homes the backbone of the empire

Moran sees his nursing homes, with 2000 beds, as a cash cow financing expansion in private hospitals, currently with 600 beds. The market value of a bed licence is $60,000-130,000. His optimally sized and profitable 100-bed nursing homes achieve occupancies of 99% (that is, they have a continual waiting list). Recommendations in the recent Gregory report on nursing-home funding would have the effect of improving profits for Moran and other efficient operators by several million dollars a year.

DOUG MORAN'S FAMILY ELIXIR Business Review Weekly October 10, 1994
http://www.uow.edu.au/~bmartin/dissent/documents/health/moran_nurshm.html#Westpac
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but burnt its fingers when its got caught up in his lavish hospital ventures in the early 1990s. About 10.5 cm down
http://www.uow.edu.au/~bmartin/dissent/documents/health/austrbanks.html

More bad health care news .. Another Australian Moran gone .. from a mine of 2004 ..

Underworld figure shot dead

March 31: Well-known crime figure Lewis Moran is shot dead at a club at Brunswick in Melbourne's north. The killing of Lewis Moran, father of slain underworld figures Jason and Mark Moran, brings the number of underworld killings since 1998 to 23. The shooting comes just one day after the funeral of underworld figure Andrew "Benji" Veniamin who was killed at a Carlton restaurant the week before. http://www.abc.net.au/news/yearinreview/2004/default.htm

the link in there didn't work so ..
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Des Moran shot dead in Melbourne street
FROM THE AGE
15/06/2009

DESMOND `Tuppence' Moran, a member of the notorious Melbourne underworld family,
has been shot dead - the fourth member of the family to suffer a violent death.

Mr Moran, 60, the brother of slain gangland figure Lewis Moran and uncle of Jason and
Mark, was shot outside a cafe on the busy Union Road shopping strip in Ascot Vale about midday.

He suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head, an ambulance spokesman said. .. video inside for those who are interested in gangsters .. http://www.examiner.com.au/news/local/news/crime-law-justice/des-moran-shot-dead-in-melbourne-street/1540844.aspx
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Little more on Doug Moran

Turi Condon goes inside some of Australia's great mansions to reveal the people, wealth and history concealed behind the security gates.

real estate review

HUGH Jackman did a twirl or seemed tempted to, says Greta Moran as she walks across the sprung
ballroom floor of Swifts, her family's 56-room gothic revival mansion overlooking Sydney Harbour.

Perhaps Jackman was also tempted to make an offer on the 1.5ha of
prime Darling Point land and the 1880s pile of sandstone that sits on it.

"Who knows," says Moran cryptically of her house, which has undergone 10 years and $12 million worth of restoration.

Movie stars, beer barons and the church are among those who either built or bought Australia's castles,
many of which have fallen into decay and have been revived by the new wave of stock-market wealth.

"The Tooths (the brewing family that built Swifts) wanted a bigger
ballroom than the governor, bigger than Government House," Moran says.

But by the time the Morans bought Swifts in 1997 for $12 million, the two storeys
of sandstone and grandeur had been stripped bare to pay for the former owner's debts.

"Three antique dealers told us they had the original dining table," she says. "Doug (Moran,
who with Greta founded the Moran Health Care Group) just chose the table he liked best."
http://www.realcommercial.com.au/doc/review/january08/elite-property.htm