Watchdog takes axe to schemes
Three agricultural investment schemes and a feature movie proposal, totalling almost $2 million in investments, have been stopped by the ASIC in the last four weeks.
Three agricultural investment schemes and a feature movie proposal, totalling almost $2 million in investments, have been stopped by the ASIC in the last four weeks.
The agricultural schemes involved cattle, timber and tamarillos. The movie was to be based on the well-known Australian fugitive Christopher Skase.
The tamarillo and movie schemes attracted no money, but the timber project had drawn $500,000 and the cattle scheme $1.7 million.
The tamarillo plantation scheme, based in Portugal, was offered by a Perth-based company Morgan Grace Investments, run by Craig Dunnicliff. The minimum investment in the scheme was to be $1000.
The same company offered Choice Skase the Movie as an investment vehicle, with a minimum input of $5000.
Neither scheme was offered with a prospectus, a responsible entity or a compliance plan.
Supreme Court orders have prevented the company and Dunnicliff from advertising the schemes and the ASIC has closed down the Internet site which gave details of the schemes.
The timber investment was being offered by Melbourne-based Austral Timber and associated company, Austimber Finance. Investors bought a franchise to operate a plot of land planted with trees.
A liquidator has been appointed to the two companies by the Supreme Court. In the hearing earlier this month, Justice Byrne said “this scheme is essentially a fraudulent one”.
“The financial arrangements entered into between Austral Timber and the participants were in part a sham and were entered into to defraud the Australian Taxation Office.
“Austimber Finance had no funds to make advances to participants. The loan arrangements made between Austimber Finance and them (the investors) were a sham,” he said.
The investment had been promoted as a franchise, but this was dismissed by the court as it saw the offering as being a managed investment scheme. The investors’ monies have been placed into a trust account by the court.
A liquidator has also been appointed to a pair of related cattle investment scheme companies. The two companies, Glencailean and Besuto Beef (Wagyu) raised $1.2 million for an investment project.
A related company, Pacific Wagyu, has been ordered not to dispose of any assets.
The ASIC found that money invested into the cattle scheme may have been used for unauthorised purposes, and investigations into the whereabouts of these funds are continuing.
A director of the companies, Colin McAskill, has been ordered to surrender his passport.
McAskill was also a director of McMan Ostrich, a company placed into liquidation in 1998 after losses of approximately $6.5 million to investors and creditors.
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