Goldberg's family had been in the textiles business in Garwolin in Poland and, being Jewish, when the Germans invaded in World War II they were sent to a ghetto, but escaped by paying a farmer to hide them in a cowshed for a year and a half.
During the next two years Linter continually changed shape and variously owned or controlled many famous Australian brands like King Gee, Speedos, Stubbies and Pelaco.
The stock market crash of 1987 hit the deal-making hard, but over the next few years in fact allowed Goldberg to take most of his empire private, funded by debt.
What Maxsted found in early 1990 was an enormously complex web of inter-company relationships, and total liabilities of some $1700m, which was far more than anyone knew and which exceeded estimated assets by at least $425m.
Goldberg had made various personal guarantees for the group and was consequently bankrupted, but not before he'd fled to Europe, where he settled back in his native Poland in 1992.