Tim Johnston liked to mix business with pleasure and spent lavishly on both. Jacquelin Magnay and Gerard Ryle report.

WHILE Sydney Kings basketballers have been forced to apply for emergency loans to cover the costs of their grocery bills, the Kings owner, the controversial Tim Johnston, chairman of the fuel technology company Firepower, has been enjoying a lavish lifestyle.

For the Rugby World Cup in France late last year Johnston booked accommodation in 13th-century castles - one was a 19-bed mansion with a swimming pool built into an ancient trout basin - for himself and his party of more than 10.

The cup was a key time for Johnston, who wanted to mix business with pleasure. His initial plans were to boost Firepower sales through sponsorship of seven Wallabies, including Matt Giteau and Cameron Shepherd, and having the then Wallaby coach John Connolly on the payroll.

Holmes a Court wooed Johnston to the Austrade-sponsored dinner in a note saying "it's a great way to meet Russell … the room is 1200 people, top tables $US10,000, honouring Russell and in memory of Steve Irwin". Holmes a Court said his table would seat Crowe; the Oscar-winning producer of Crash, Cathy Schulman; the Virgin Blue chief executive, Brett Godfrey. The night would be "definitely fun, possibly fantastic, but nothing can be guaranteed".

Johnston paid his own way to Los Angeles.

Also enjoying the Mulataga yabby salad, Australian grain-fed beef and water imported from the Snowy Mountains at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza was the cricketer Steve Waugh, whom Johnston wanted to promote Firepower's products in India.

But three months on, the glamour was fading quickly. In April Johnston authorised an urgent payment to the Rabbitohs of $275,000 for its home-game jersey sponsorship. But by May Firepower was two months in arrears to the Rabbitohs, for $4400. By October Holmes a Court had taken the unusual step of dumping Firepower just one year into its three-year $3 million proposal.

Holmes a Court had previously warned Johnston that he needed to answer questions about Firepower that had been raised in the Herald. "If the article is not answered it will have major impacts for us as a business," he wrote. "We have a major government department who is nervous and awaits the all-clear. I am very keen to be able to answer people with the passion that I have felt towards your product since day one; all I need are the facts to tackle the claims."

Also in May last year, documents show, Firepower was three months in arrears to the Steve Waugh Foundation - a charity - for $24,000.

The foundation was not alone: Firepower had total outstanding debts of more than $2 million to more than 140 different organisations, including $4400 to the Perth Wildcats, $25,000 to the Tonga Rugby Football Union and $550,000 to Tasman Motorsport.

As the months passed, the credit squeeze tightened dramatically and the debts continued to mount.

As the Herald revealed recently, the Western Force Super 14 rugby union team is owed more than $220,000 in sponsorship for last season, and Firepower rugby union players have not received all of their monies.

Giteau, Australia's highest-paid rugby player, is owed about $500,000. Shepherd and Drew Mitchell are both owed more than $100,000. Western Force's coach, John Mitchell, was also on the payroll, being paid $100,000 a year, but he finished the deal last August. This is all putting pressure on the future of the Western Force because the club may be forced to pick up the shortfall.

All the while the Sydney Kings basketball players - the team owned by Johnston - have not been paid their total wages, and their superannuation accounts are six months in arrears.The Kings, too, are on the verge of oblivion.

Throughout late 2006 and 2007 Johnston was hell-bent on pursuing his strategy to have big-name sports stars on his books to promote Firepower and open business doors. Internal documents said the Steve Waugh promotion would coincide with the Champions Trophy. Part of the strategy from Firepower's media consultants, Wilkinson Media, says: "Though a journalist may not trust Firepower they may trust Steve Waugh, Matt Giteau, etc."

In October 2006 Firepower's legal adviser was instructed to finish agreements concerning Waugh, motor racing, the boxer Paul Briggs, seven Wallaby players and the Adelaide Crows Australian football team. But the sponsorships ended up being not with the Crows, but with the then Crows captain Mark Ricciuto (who incidentally is also a substantial Firepower investor) and the Fremantle Dockers player Matthew Pavlich. The former Wallaby coach Connolly had an agreement to do work with Firepower and was promised shares and money, but he said he had not done any of the work, and had not received shares or money.

Steve Waugh's manager, Harley Medcalf, said Waugh had done no work for Firepower in India and was not owed any money by Firepower in India or Australia. He also said the Steve Waugh Foundation was not owed any money. Lucky Waugh.

Firepower's star power

Prominent shareholders in Firepower Australian football players Mark Ricciuto, Simon Goodwin, Rhett Biglands, Jason Torney, Brett Burton, Robert Shirley, Ryan Fitzgerald, Daryl Wakelin and Wayne Carey; Carey's father, Kevin, and Carey's manager, Anthony McConville; the Adelaide Crows coach, Neil Craig, and wife, Christine; Anthony Lehmann, known as the comedian Lehmo

Prominent sponsorships, past and present Ricciuto and fellow Australian footballer Matthew Pavlich; Western Force Super 14 players Matt Giteau, Cameron Shepherd and Ryan Cross; the Western Force coach, John Mitchell; Western Force Super 14 team; the former Wallabies coach John Connolly; Rugby WA; South Sydney Rabbitohs; Tasman Motorsport; the boxer Paul Briggs; the Welsh Cardiff Blues rugby union team; Rugby Union of Russia; surfer Mick Manning

Former employees The former rugby league player David Liddiard; former Wallabies rugby union player Adrian Skeggs; the former Springbok captain Tiaan Strauss