Fiji coup leader linked to failed Wattle scheme
The leader of the Fijian coup, George Speight, has links back to the local financial serv-ices industry according to comments made in the NSW Parliament on Wednesday.
The leader of the Fijian coup, George Speight, has links back to the local financial serv-ices industry according to comments made in the NSW Parliament on Wednesday.
Speight is alleged to have referred 20 people to a scheme run by the Wattle Group when he was living in Brisbane late last year.
The statements by the NSW Fair Trading Minister John Watkins allege Speight took two per cent interest in his role as a middleman from the $700,000 he persuaded people to invest.
However Watkins says the coup leader escaped without any conviction for his role in the scheme.
"When the Wattle scheme collapsed, investors referred by Speight got about four cents in the dollar, if they were lucky," Mr Watkins told state parliament.
The Queensland-based Wattle Group was a pyramid investment scheme that collapsed two years ago, losing $165 million in investors funds and affecting about 3000 investors.
Investigations and court action into the scheme by the Australian Securities and Invest-ment Commission (ASIC) are still in progress.
According to earlier reports Speight also worked in Brisbane as a junior bank clerk for the Queensland based Metway Bank.
A spokesman for Suncorp-Metway says Speight worked for Metway before the two banks merged.
"About seven years ago, he worked for Metway as a loans clerk and, for a short time, as a mobile loans officer," the spokesman says.
He also once held permanent residence in Australia and owns at least one house on the southside of Brisbane.
Watkins used the involvement of Speight to warn people about being enticed into in-vesting in the illegal schemes which he says continue to flourish in NSW despite gov-ernment attempts to stamp them out.
"As soon as Fair Trading shuts one down, another one begins. They are spread by letter or word of mouth, and increasingly by the Internet," Watkins says.
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Jason Spits
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