Failed Intagr8 boss bankrupt

The boss of a controversial telecommunications company that collapsed owing millions has been bankrupted.

Murray Taylor was the sole director and shareholder of Auckland-based Intagr8 Ltd, which was placed into voluntary liquidation owing about $4m in December.

A Commerce Commission investigation found the company, which sold bundled telecommunications deals, had likely breached the Fair Trading Act by making false or misleading statements to customers.

Taylor, who flew to Melbourne shortly after Intagr8’s collapse, was declared bankrupt in Australia last month, official documents reveal.

Intagr8 liquidator Damien Grant, of Waterstone Insolvency in Auckland, said the adjudication across the Tasman meant there was little point proceeding further with the liquidation of Intagr8.

It was very unlikely the company’s unsecured creditors would recover any of the $3.7m they were owed, Grant said.

‘‘[Taylor’s bankruptcy] reduces the appetite of the liquidators to pursue the director [of Intagr8] for any breach of duties.

‘‘There’s no point re-drowning a drowned rat.’’

Grant said the liquidators of Intagr8 had found no evidence of criminal conduct, but the company had run an ‘‘unsustainable business model’’.

Intagr8 sold bundled telecommunications deals to about 2500 small or medium-sized businesses, which received ‘‘call credits’’ to offset the cost of phone equipment rented through finance companies.

A SundayStar-Times investigation last year revealed widespread confusion about the deals.