Insolvency Industry Meets For Conference

Insolvency Industry Meets For Conference

“As the insolvency industry meets for its big conference in Auckland this week it needs to be a lot of soul searching” says Bruce Tichbon, spokesperson for the Ross Asset Management (RAM) Investors Group.

“It is beholden on the insolvency industry to explain why, with so much white collar fraud in NZ, that the insolvency industry seems to be able to recover so little of the money that is stolen.

“Over the past few years there have been a huge number of spectacular failures in the finance industry, including many Ponzi schemes such as the recent Ross Asset Management (RAM) debacle. Yet the insolvency industry seems to be unable in most cases to recover anything more than a few cents in the dollar for the investors. The result is many, many thousands of NZ investors have been all but totally robbed and billions of investment dollars transferred to other parties. The impact has been devastating, costing the life time savings of widows and retired couples, as well as students saving for their educations, and young families saving for their first home.

“Recovery performance does not need to be so bad. In the case of the Madoff Ponzi in the USA, liquidation is on track to recover virtually 100% of the stolen money. Yet the investors in the RAM Ponzi in NZ are being warned to expect recoveries of somewhere between nothing and a few cents in the dollar at best.

“The insolvency industry must address why the recovery performance in NZ is so poor compared to overseas benchmarks. Does the NZ problem lie in weak law and regulation, poor insolvency industry enforcement, or an ‘old boys club’ culture? We are hopeful the overseas speakers at the conference will address these issues. We ask that the speakers from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and Financial Markets Authority (FMA), who will be at the conference, also address these concerns.

With tickets to the Insol conference costing more than $2,000 dollars in most cases, the company will be exclusive. As the industry shares drinks and canapés we hope they will spare a thought for the thousands of NZ investors who they should be helping to recover their life savings.

ENDS

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