Tribeca Homes facing action
Failed Auckland house-builder Tribeca Homes is facing action on multiple fronts, with liquidators serving court papers on related parties and Inland Revenue concluding the firm owes millions in GST.
Tribeca’s sole director is accountant Mark Richards, and the firm is 90 per cent owned by the Mani family. One member of this family, Ritesh Mani, worked with Tribeca as its “number one sales executive” while an undischarged bankrupt in the lead-up to the company’s collapse in May 2015.
At the time the firm ran into troubles Richards defended his employee: “I’m not saying he’s a saint, but the one thing the boy could do was sell.”
Mani admitted to the Herald he had arranged for himself and Tribeca sales staff to attend a pep sales talk by Jordan Belfort, the convicted fraudster popularly known as The Wolf of Wall Street.
The collapse of the firm left dozens of home-buyers who had signed contracts to build $10m worth of homes, stranded with only half-built homes or empty sections to show for non-refundable deposits.
Grant Thornton’s Timothy Downes and Stephanie Jeffreys were appointed as liquidators to the company, and their latest report into Tribeca published this week said unsecured creditors — aside from the taxman — were owed $2.3m.
In total, Tribeca owes creditors $4.8m.
Downes and Jeffreys’ report said Inland Revenue had audited the construction firm and recently finalised a claim for $2.4m “primarily relating to outstanding GST”.
Disputes with related parties had also resulted in High Court dates being set, the report said: “The liquidators’ legal advisors have issued demands against various related parties in respect of outstanding debts. The demands have expired unsatisfied and legal counsel has now been instructed to issue proceedings for recovery.”
Liquidators said their investigation into the company’s affairs — a probe that has been ongoing since the company’s collapse two years ago — were being held up by Tribeca’s former legal counsel.
“The liquidators have requested further information from the company’s former lawyers who are currently not co-operating,” the report said.