BizNews Edge: What a very public fall taught Rael Levitt, and how he's come back from it

In December 2011, Rael Levitt brought the hammer down on Quoin Rock, Dave King's Stellenbosch wine estate. Within months, Auction Alliance, the business he had spent 20 years building, was gone. In studio with Alec Hogg, Levitt went back over the auction that undid him: the vendor bidder he placed in the crowd, the lie he told billionaire bidder Wendy Appelbaum, and the attempted fix after the event that he admitted made it worse. He described years of investigations, a Consumer Commission ruling that was later overturned, and legal advice to stay silent that he now believes was wrong. Then came the comeback: an MBA in Los Angeles, a run-down warehouse in Epping, and one investor whose backing changed how the banks saw him. Alec put the question his book, It Takes a Tsunami, invites: is it a confession, or a defence? Levitt gave his answer, and told his 40-year-old self what he wished he had known.