Fox ‘confident’ bills will be paid after consultancy fail
Former Ma¯ori Party co-leader Marama Fox has assured creditors of her failed consultancy that she is trying to arrange finance to pay them back.
The former MP owes creditors $160,000 after her development consultancy went into liquidation in August.
Fox, who was attending a family crisis when she was called, said she was confident all the firm’s creditors would be paid.
‘‘I’m still pursuing the affordable housing possibilities and we have a couple of things that are still on the table but didn’t get across the line in time to avoid this action,’’ she said.
‘‘I’m meeting with people this week and finance people to see if I can get finance [for the] short term until those things come through, so we can get them paid as quickly as possible.’’
Asked if she would be able to pay them all, she said: ‘‘I’m confident that we can do that.’’
Fox left Parliament after the 2017 election when the Ma¯ ori Party failed to win any electorate seats and won only about 1 per cent of the party vote.
She resigned from the party in September.
Marama Fox Consultancy Group Tapui – set up a year ago to develop affordable housing, mainly for Ma¯ori – was placed into liquidation by one of her creditors, Masterton informationtechnology firm Ohnyx IT Solutions, which was owed $33,000.
Ohnyx director Jono Oh, whose company helped Fox to design her IT system and supplied equipment, said at the time that he had been as lenient to a new business as he could.
‘‘I was also sympathetic to what I saw as a good cause with what they were doing. However, a breakdown of communication and lack of action on their end forced our hand to escalate the debt.’’ Amy Turuta, a travel agent in Rotorua owed $39,000 for travel services, said she hoped Fox would come through, although she had heard such assurances before.
Although she was part of a travel agents’ network, Turuta said the debt fell on her.
The first liquidator’s report shows 14 unsecured creditors owed $156,000 for items such as travel, IT and whiteware. Liquidator Grant Reynolds of Reynolds & Associates said the company had been undercapitalised from the start.
He had not yet received all the company’s records and Fox was taking steps to personally pay back her creditors, in which case the liquidation would be terminated.