LIFE IN FAST LANE
$20m of investors’ funds still hang in the balance
The director of a failed fund with $211 million frozen is believed to be driving a Bentley with $20 million still to be accounted for.
ADMINISTRATORS of a failed fund that has frozen $211 million of investor funds believe its director may be cruising the Gold Coast in a Bentley and living in a luxury rented home while they account for a shortfall of almost $20 million.
Halifax Investment Services, run by Gold Coaster Jeff Worboys, was placed in voluntary administration in November.
ASIC suspended the company’s financial services licence on January 8, four days before he and wife Patricia were photographed enjoying the exclusive luxury of The Dome at the Gold Coast Magic Millions.
The Bulletin understands Mr Worboys is renting a waterfront home in exclusive Admiralty Drive at Paradise Waters, the same neighbourhood where his wife has sold two luxury homes in the past five years for a combined $8.6 million.
Halifax administrators Ferrier Hodgson told more than 12,600 investors and creditors that placing the company in liquidation was the only viable option if they wanted to see some of their money again.
They found almost $4.8 million worth of transactions were potentially voidable, and thus could be recovered, including $1.98 million in director loan account reductions days before the company went into administration; a $609,346 leave payment to Mr Worboys; a loan payment to another of his companies, AMH, for $124,301; rent payments of $49,631; a rental bond of $6087; and a $39,377 payout of a Bentley lease.
The administrators decided not to recover a companyowned Maserati Gran Turismo Sport because it was security for a Westpac loan.
They found Halifax had likely failed because client funds were used to prop up the company’s operating losses “since at least January 2017”, and say the company may have been operating while insolvent since that time.
They found extensive “comingling” of accounts, meaning investor funds were improperly moved between trading platforms and accounting irregularities in documents lodged with ASIC.
Their report said Mr Worboys disagreed the shortfall in client funds was because they had been improperly applied or that trust accounts had not been operated properly.
The report also said Mr Worboys had told them the company had paid his rent because he was using the property as a “home office”.
The administrators found the accounting was such that it had been impossible to trace the flow of funds and that it may be necessary to pool investor funds from the different trading platforms before distributing them.
They said preliminary investigations had showed Mr Worboys and a former director Matthew Barnett may have breached their director duties; that Halifax may have breached the Corporations Act; and that there may be claims against external advisers to the company.
They have decided a deed of company arrangement to enable the company to continue trading would not be possible and liquidation was the only option. Although ASIC suspended Halifax’s licence in January, Mr Worboys still holds an individual licence which ASIC declined to answer questions about.
A creditors meeting for Halifax Investment is scheduled for next Wednesday, but administrators say they are unlikely to make any distributions for at least 12 months.