Region's Oliver Jacques' investigative reporting puts him in line to scoop national award

Region Riverina reporter Oliver Jacques has been selected as a finalist for the 2024 Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism.

The former Canberran is one of three finalists in the Regional Reporting Print and Online category for his investigation into the demise of Riverina wine company Sans Pareil Estate.

Oliver’s exclusive reporting uncovered allegations of tax fraud totalling $32 million and shone a light on the lavish lifestyle and spending of the winery’s young owner Aaron Salvestrin.

“It started when I found a Supreme Court case listing about a Griffith man and I put in a request for court documents,” Oliver explained.

“I found out he was alleged to owe the tax office $32 million, which is more than serial fraudster Melissa Caddick owed and that was worldwide news.”

After being hung up on more times than he could count, Oliver began to gather pieces of the puzzle and assembled a picture of how the winery had unravelled.

The 29-year-old Salvestrin had launched Sans Pareil Estate in 2018 and over the next four years, he registered another eight companies associated with the winery – all of which went into liquidation in October 2022.

“I also dug into court records and liquidator documents and the story became more and more intriguing – a McLaren supercar, private jet trips, police search warrants, Only Fans transactions, mysterious property sales – I did 24 articles in total. It was a massive story, I couldn’t believe nobody else was covering it,” Oliver said.

“Allegations of corporate crime are very underreported and there’s certainly a lot of alleged victims here including a long list of creditors that are still owed money, a lot of them from small towns in the Riverina and surrounding areas.”

Oliver said he was shocked by the audacity of the alleged tax fraud scheme that involved claiming millions in GST refunds on non-existent wine exports.

Mr Salvestrin has not been charged with any crimes related to this matter.

Oliver came to journalism later in life and over the years has worked for government departments, members of parliament and various media outlets.

He joined the Region Riverina team in 2022 and said he was very much at home in the steadily growing Region Media Group.

“I was reluctant to get back into journalism because I thought it was a brutal job where you get paid peanuts and work long hours to have people hate you. But Region is by far the best media organisation I’ve ever worked for; they treat their employees really well,” he said.

“I love that I work for a news organisation that doesn’t have a paywall. It made the articles so easy to share and everyone could read them. Most went viral, getting up to 40,000 views each, which is double my town’s population.”

Grateful to have made the Kennedy Awards shortlist, Oliver issued a string of thank yous to those who supported him.

“I hadn’t reported much on court and financial scandals; I mostly did things like baby profiles, restaurant openings and grandmas turning 100,” he said with a laugh.

“I got such great support and advice from the Region team. Albie McKnight, our court reporter, was a great mentor, while Kim Treasure, Chris Roe, Ian Bushnell, Morgan McGoogan, David Murtagh and John Coleman also gave me handy tips and second opinions, as did former gun Wagga editor Dan Johns.

“I’m also grateful to RSM Australia’s Andrew Bowcher and Adam Cormack, who were happy to chat and give me general advice on what liquidation means, decoding complex financial jargon into plain English.”

The 2024 Kennedy Award winners will be announced in Sydney on Friday 16 August.