Sir Ron Brierley will be added to NSW's child protection register and will reportedly lose his knighthood after the New Zealand investor and corporate raider admitted child abuse crimes.
The 83-year-old multi-millionaire on Thursday pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing child abuse material after being caught with material in Sydney International Airport in December 2019.
One offence related to photographs of girls, aged as young as two years, in sexually suggestive poses while another concerned a data storage device found at his home that contained 1615 images of child abuse material.
The exact number of images found on Brierley's devices is still disputed, Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court was told.
Agreed facts are yet to be filed.
A police prosecutor dropped 14 other child abuse material charges after Brierley's pleas were entered.
NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has asked for the process to strip Brierley of his knighthood to be initiated, local media reported on Thursday.
Brierley will have 30 days to respond to that process before Ms Ardern can write to the Queen, recommending forfeiture of the knighthood.
Brierley was a notable alumnus of Wellington College, where a theatre was named after him.
The school began scrubbing its grounds of his name after Thursday's guilty pleas, the chair of the school's board told AAP in a statement.
Brierley is next due to face court on April 30 to begin the sentencing process.
His bail, requiring him to live at his home in Sydney's exclusive Point Piper, was continued until that date.
Brierley rose to prominence in the 1970s with his eponymous company that, despite little starting captial, developed into an Australian-New Zealand conglomerate with investments in firms around the world.
It was at one time the largest company in NZ.
He was knighted in NZ in 1988, a year before standing down as head of Brierley Investments.
The offences he has admitted will require him to comply with reporting obligations of the NSW Child Protection Register for at least eight years after he is sentenced.
