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The polo-playing investment banker who terrorized an 18-year-old Australian girl by strapping a phony collar bomb around her neck may have targeted his victim over business dealings with her dad, according to court papers filed yesterday.
Paul Peters, 50, the financier and former New Yorker charged in the deranged extortion plot in suburban Sydney, was once employed by a company associated with Australian software CEO Bill Pulver, whose daughter spent 10 horrific hours believing she was about to be blown to bits, court papers said.
Arrested at his ex-wife’s Louisville home this week, Peters will be held until an Oct. 14 extradition hearing, a judge ruled.
His alleged victim, Madeleine Pulver, said yesterday she was “very relieved” to hear about the arrest. When asked why she was picked, the teen said, “I think we’re all wondering why.”
Little in Peters’ posh, well-educated background indicates why he might be capable of such a crime, but after years working for financial firms in the United States and Australia, including Allco Finance Group, his fortunes turned sour in recent years.
He formed Douglas Corp. to try to buy out the remnants of Allco’s failed Kuala Lumpur office, which he ran, but the company was later dissolved.
Investigators tracked down Peters thanks to a slew of mostly high-tech clues he left behind, according to a federal complaint, including the files on the computer thumb drive he allegedly attached to Pulver’s neck, which were written on a computer named “Paul P.”
According to the complaint, Madeleine Pulver was studying for exams earlier this month when an intruder barged in wearing a black ski mask and brandishing an aluminum baseball bat.
He told her to sit down, promising she wouldn’t be hurt. He then forced a small box against her throat and looped a device similar to a bike chain around her neck, court papers claim.
Her assailant then locked the box into position around her neck and placed a lanyard and a plastic document sleeve around her neck. It contained a hand-written note with demands and the e-mail address and a thumb drive. Then he walked away.
When she asked where he was going, he replied, “Count to 200 . . . I’ll be back . . . If you move, I can see you; I’ll be right here,” she told authorities, according to the complaint.
The bomb squad, hostage negotiators and detectives arrived, but a panicked Pulver had to wait hours before it was determined the bomb was a fake.
The note demanded the Pulvers “transfer a Defined Sum once you acknowledge and confirm receipt of this message,” and provided the e-mail address dirkstruan@gmail.com — an apparent reference to a character in a James Clavell novel who is determined to destroy a business rival.
Australian authorities tracked the account to Peters, following a trail of IP addresses and surveillance footage from libraries, Internet cafes and airports.
Neighbors of Peters’ ex-wife said the banker had spent about six months of the past two years in Kentucky, and recently bought three boxes of Girl Scout cookies from one child.
The Pulvers, meanwhile, said they were relieved to hear of the arrest.
William Pulver, who told authorities he does not know Peters, described his daughter as “a bright, happy young woman who for reasons we still don’t understand had her life turned upside down going through this dreadful experience.”
Formerly president and CEO of NetRankings, William Pulver was a pioneer in tracking online exposure and readership for companies advertising on the Web.
He left after the company was sold to ratings giant Nielsen in 2007. He is now the chief executive of Appen Butler Hill, a company that provides language and voice-recognition software and services, and is one of the richest men in Sydney.
Additional reporting by Rebecca Rosenberg, Amber Sutherland, Joe Mollica and Post Wires