Fijian coup leader George Speight has been linked with the Wattle Group pyramid in-vestment scheme which lost more than $165 million of investor’s funds.
Fijian coup leader George Speight has been linked with the Wattle Group pyramid in-vestment scheme which lost more than $165 million of investor’s funds.
Speaking in NSW parliament, fair trading minister John Watkins alleged that Speight re-ferred 20 people to the scheme when he was living in Brisbane late last year.
Watkins said Speight took two per cent interest in his role as a middleman from the $700,000 he persuaded people to invest. However he says the coup leader escaped with-out 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,” Watkins said.
Investigations and court action into the Wattle scheme by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) are still in progress.
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.
