Failed fund boss will fight $70m court ruling

THE businessman at the centre of a $70 million court appeal loss says he is prepared to fight the case in the High Court.

Phil Sullivan, former CEO of failed mortgage fund City Pacific, lost a Supreme Court appeal on Monday, making him and three former colleagues liable to pay the $70 million in repayments, interest and costs ordered by the Federal Court in 2016.

The fund, with 11,000 unit holders – many of them elderly investors looking for retirement income – loaned millions to property developments on the Gold Coast before it collapsed in 2009.

City Pacific, now known as Pacific First Mortgage Fund, was a key backer during stages of landmark Gold Coast projects including Jewel, Broadbeach’s Oracle towers and Circle on Cavill in Surfers Paradise.

Sullivan said there was more to the case than the judgment suggested and that his legal team was preparing a brief to appeal in the High Court.

“The Gold Coast skyline is littered with cranes on prime developments being completed on sites previously the backbone of the City Pacific Mortgage Fund assets,” he told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

“I am proud of what City Pacific achieved for the unit holders but saddened when I see projects such as the Jewel and many others being developed for the benefit of others instead of the unit holders.

“Maybe one day those responsible for the real losses to the fund will be brought to account. The majority of the development industry on the Coast understand exactly what’s happened.”

Sullivan and his co-defendants have three weeks to lodge an appeal.