The Australian & Securities Investments Commission (ASIC) has obtained interim orders in the Supreme Court of Queensland in Brisbane, appointing an interim receiver to an allegedly unregistered managed investment scheme, operating as Comcash Australasia Pty Ltd (Comcash), in south-east Queensland.
The Court ordered that Mr Ian Richard Hall and Mr Martin Russell Brown of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Brisbane, be appointed as receivers of Comcash Australasia Pty Ltd, Comcash director, Mr Richard Clayton Jackson Sharland, of The Gap in Brisbane, and Mr Michael John Muckan, of Gailes in Brisbane, until the hearing of the matter.
The Court also ordered an interim injunction restraining the respondents from further operating the scheme, receiving or soliciting funds in connection with the scheme, removing any assets from Australia, or disposing of any assets.
Mr Sharland and Mr Muckan were further ordered to surrender their passports to the court until a further hearing of the matter.
ASIC alleges that since March 2003, Comcash sales representatives have induced up to 61 clients to invest their superannuation entitlements in joint ventures overseas in Dominica with a company known as SMC Corporation.
All the clients who invested in the joint ventures established a self-managed superannuation fund. In return for investing in these joint ventures, clients were entitled to loans attracting low interest repayments at 2.5 per cent per annum. The funds invested by clients totalled over $1 million.
ASIC found that many clients have not received their loan. ASIC also alleges that Comcash carried on a financial services business without the appropriate license as required under the Corporations Act.
ASIC further alleges that Mr Sharland has breached the terms of an enforceable undertaking accepted by ASIC in April 2002. At that time, Mr Sharland undertook not to promote or operate this type of scheme.
Mr Sharland, also known as Richard Clayton Jackson Stagg and Clayton Michael Richards, entered bankruptcy in November 2000 and is currently an undischarged bankrupt.
The matter returns before the Court on 18 December 2003.