Soho leaves bitter taste with investors

Further problems have cropped up for the former Soho Lemon scheme managers, with Suncorp Metway calling in its loan on the Victorian farm.

A spokesman for the bank told Money Management it had issued Section 76 notices requesting the loan be repaid by September 9.

The $1 million loan was to Tidak Saja Pty Ltd, a company that has Peter and Janet Russell-Clarke as sole directors.

Peter Russell-Clarke said he was refinancing the loan and confirmed the mortgage was over the part of the Bellarine Peninsula lemon farm, where the managed investment scheme operates.

"We will repay this loan the same as other bills we are paying on behalf of the project," he said.

There is also a second mortgage over the property for $200,000 to Brimscombe Management. This company, which is in liquidation, had Soho accountant Egon Grossberg as the sole director.

Liquidator Andrew Dunner confirmed the mortgage had not been repaid and was being treated as an asset for Brinscombe.

As part of the first prospectus issued last year, the 80 Soho investors had leased the land from Russell-Clarke's company.

ASIC director managed investments, Darren McShane did not see any problems with the refinancing moves.

"The leases will survive as we introduced special licence conditions to protect investors in these types of situations a while ago," he says.

ASIC has also removed Soho Lemon Management as the responsible entity and has appointed ARG Management as the temporary responsible entity.

McShane says ASIC wants to ensure managers of investment schemes maintain adequate financial resources to continue the operation.

ASIC has been investigating Soho and McShane says, "we are still closely looking at the scheme" went into administration on July 26.