ASIC shuts down $11 million scheme
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has obtained injunctions in the Brisbane Supreme Court to stop a managed investment scheme involving $11 million.
ASIC alleged New Zealand-based company Risqy, its Queensland-based directors Leslie George Whitford and Graham George Lee and its associate Elizabeth Flora were not registered to carry on business in Australia, nor did they hold the necessary Australian Financial Services Licence.
This followed allegations that almost 200 Australian investors paid over $11 million into the company’s New Zealand account this year on the understanding it would be invested on the United States market.
Investors were promised a 67 per cent annual return, but more than $US800,000 (approximately $A1 million) of investors’ money has been lost on the market to date.
The court’s injunctions and orders are as follows:
• restraining Risqy, Whitford, Lee and Lacey from operating the scheme, fundraising, and dealing with scheme money, property and records;
• appointing William Fletcher of Bentleys MRI as receiver over scheme property to identify, secure, and recover investor funds and report to the court;
• requiring Whitford, Lee and Lacey to provide the receiver and ASIC with details of scheme bank accounts and property and to provide ASIC with investors’ details; and
• restraining Whitford, Lee and Lacey from leaving Australia and requiring them to handover their passports to the court.
ASIC has also applied to wind up the scheme, for injunctions permanently preventing the company and its directors from operating the scheme, and for declarations of contravention of various provisions of the Corporations Act.
ASIC’s investigations are continuing.
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