Wattle administrators plead guilty
The administrators of the failed Wattle Group have pleaded guilty to charges of being knowingly concerned in the promotion of prescribed interests in contravention of the Corporations Act.
The directors of Brisbane-based Mackay & Allen Pty Ltd, Rodney James Mackay and John Andrew Allen, were charged by theAustralian Securities and Investments Commission(ASIC) in relation to nine investors who lost approximately $464,000 invested in the Wattle scheme.
The Wattle Group was an unlicensed investment scheme operated by Geoffrey Robert Dexter, which raised more than $160 million from over 2700 Australian investors on the promise of rates of return of up to 50 per cent per annum.
Mackay & Allen received commissions from the Wattle Group of 25 per cent on investor funds it sourced.
This is the latest in a long line of convictions associated with the Wattle Group, with Dexter convicted on multiple fraud charges and jailed for 10 years.
Four other promoters of the scheme - Marshall John Cobb of Tax Invest Australia, Howard Jeffrey Owen of Fin Invest, Bruce Raymond Walden of Australian Secured Mortgages and Kenneth Edwin Parker of Anscor - have also received good behaviour bonds, fines and ASIC bans for similar offences.
Mackay and Allen will appear at a sentence hearing on 5 September 2003.
AUTHOR
Freya Purnell
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