Mayfair 101 Group expressed disappointment at the outcome, with managing director James Mawhinney stating as the founder of IPO Wealth that he was “devastated”.
“I have personally engaged with almost every single unitholder and have eternal empathy for the situation they now find themselves in,” Mr Mawhinney said.
He added that his team had worked to “prevent the erosion of value” that the winding up will result in.
Mayfair 101 has also claimed that defamatory allegations were made by counsel for insolvency firm Dye & Co in the proceedings, which it intends to challenge.
Receivers from Dye & Co were appointed by the group’s trustee Vasco, after Mayfair appointed administrators from Cor Cordis in July.
Mr Mawhinney has categorically rejected any claims of impropriety, with Mayfair 101 stating the allegations against him are “unfounded” and the proceedings denied the director the right of reply on a number of claims.
The court advised that ASIC has taken an interest in the oversight of the IPO Wealth Fund by Vasco Trustees.
Mayfair 101 said it will provide full co-operation to ASIC on any investigation given the impact the matter has had on unitholders and the group.
The court battle began after Mayfair 101 failed to make $3 million in loan repayments to the IPO Wealth Fund – a cornerstone of Mayfair’s bid to create a “tourism mecca” on Dunk Island.
It also saw Mayfair defending allegations that it deleted six user profiles and 1,500 documents from its data management system and that its funds were set up as Ponzi schemes.
I think we all saw Mayfair coming and anyone with any sense kept clients away from it – as this result was inevitable. What you can’t foresee is the obdurate, implacable denials of all and any responsibility by these (usually younger, but nearly always brash, boastful) types, who live in a delusional world, where their money-making ability should never be questioned.
If it was as easy to do and get away with as Mawhinney thought we’d probably all be doing those crazy stunts, but a cursory glance tells everyone with any experience that they can’t succeed. Pretending to offer relatively low-risk income investments that are actually highly capital-sensitive, maybe-growth investments, with all the risk that entails is a type of stratgey we’ve seen before, many times, and they nearly always end in similar disaster. I’ve watched them (and called them out) since the early 1980s but history tells us they were around well before then – which is one reason we spotted the Timbercorps, Estate Mortgages, Great Southern, AustWide Property, et al as they started, rather than after they finished
This is what happens when regulators and politicians make it too difficult for consumers to access professional advice.
If consumers can’t get professional advice, they make decisions based on advertising instead. Dodgy products like Mayfair flourish. With professional advice becoming ever more difficult for consumers to access, there will be many more Mayfairs.
Everybody in the financial services industry with half a brain new it was destined to become a Ponzi scheme even if the intention wasn’t that to start with….yet ASIC still allowed those full page adverts to appear in major newspapers all around the country.
Oh my. Will be interesting to see if James Mawhinney is next on ASIC’s hit list and a Banning Order.
unfortunately it failed the prudent person test and even with huge full page adverts in the newspapers took to long for action.