ASIC winds up $3.6-million MIS
The financial services regulator has wound up an unregistered managed investment scheme (MIS) known as Master Fund, which extracted $3.6 million from 40 Australian investors.
Master Fund was one of 14 MIS investigated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in 2007 and 2008, during which time the regulator located $20 million which belonged to Australian investors.
At the time, ASIC claimed investors' funds were dispersed to various offshore accounts including in New Zealand, Hong Kong and the US, while some were also used in a ponzi scheme to pay monthly returns to other investors.
In fact, the operators promised returns in the order of 3-4 per cent per or more per month and that there was no risk of losing the invested money, ASIC alleged.
Those in charge of Master Fund were unregistered offshore fund operators targeting Australian investors and self-managed super funds, and held no Australian Financial Services Licence.
The regulator is now taking civil action against the operators of the 14 schemes, including David Hobbs, David Collard and Min Hua Li.
Barry Taylor of HLB Mann Judd has been appointed liquidator of Master Fund and will determine the return of money to the investors in the scheme, ASIC said.
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