PUBLIC JUSTICE FOR US BILLIONAIRE

The American billionaire drug-smuggler who fought for eight months to keep
his name a secret in New Zealand is Ohio insurance magnate Peter Benjamin
Lewis.

The 66-year-old is regarded as a business phenomenon in his home country
where he is the chairman, president and chief executive officer of
Progressive Corporation, the United States' fourth-largest vehicle insurer.

Lewis took over the company from his father in 1965 when staff numbered
100. Today Progressive employs 14,000 people and and has annual sales of
$US4.8 billion ($NZ11 billion).

Lewis owns 15 per cent of the company and his wealth is estimated at $US1.3
billion.

Although unknown in New Zealand - until now - he has cultivated a
reputation in the United States as an eccentric but highly respected
business leader and an extraordinarily generous philanthropist.

He has donated $50 million to the Guggenheim Museum in New York and $55
million to Princeton University in honour of his graduating class of 1955.

He has also donated heavily to campaigns urging voters to legalise the
medicinal use of marijuana.

He is a divorced father of three grown children - two sons and a daughter.

Lewis was discharged without conviction after smuggling cannabis into New
Zealand for his personal use last January.

The Court of Appeal yesterday lifted name suppression, which was granted by
Judge David Harvey in the Otahuhu District Court after the billionaire made
a $50,000 donation to the drug rehabilitation centre Odyssey House.

The New Zealand Herald waged an eight-month legal battle to have the name
suppression overturned. Herald editor Stephen Davis said the lengthy and
expensive court battle was about an important principle of freedom.

"The public needs to have an open and accountable system of justice," said
Davis.

"They can't go and sit in the courts themselves, so they rely on the
newspapers and the media to do it for them. And if justice is done behind
closed doors, and if there is a suspicion that the prominent or successful
or rich or powerful get special treatment, then that's not a good system."

Mr Davis said he believes judges have become too liberal in granting name
suppression.