Share Investor: Allan Hubbard

Showing posts with label Allan Hubbard. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Hubbard to blame for collapse of South Canterbury Finance.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

GUEST POST: Deborah Hill Cone: NZ - crazy people, crazy place

A brilliant piece of writing in the NZ Herald this morning from the woman who initially exposed the inadequacies of Mark Hotchin and Eric Watson's collapsed Hanover Group.

Deborah Hill Cone takes an acerbic look at finance company collapses, principally Allan Hubbard's failed empire and like everyone else is just about full to the eyeballs with the whole shooting match.

Too much more and we all just might go nuts!

Heerrres Debs!

Allan Hubbard!!! Give the poor guy a break!! Down boy!! Call off your slavering media hounds!! He's just a dear old granddaddy on dialysis who never hurt a fly with his humble house and humble cup of tea and humble shortbread just trying to give humble hard working moms and pops a wee hand up and now you're a-hounding and a-hauling the ol' feller into an early grave. Steady on vicar!! Old Mother Hubbard is Vee-Dub-tastic. Gets my motor running. He can be my hubby anytime!! Geddit!!

For Crying Out Loud!!! Allan Hubbard: arenchasickof him! Who cares if he is a frail 83-year-old or a 23-year-old triathlete. Tough bikkies!! He cost taxpayers a bomb, and I don't mean just an old VW!! Stop a-whingeing and a-whining granddad!! Let's get Hubba Bubba. Crazy name, crazy guy!

What a hero! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's Fearless Feeley, the squinty-eyed crime-fighting superman bravely standing up to wussy-pussy public opinion in his quest for justice from those bad bankers. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!! To infinity, of legal fees and really really long trials, and beyond! You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.

Super-Feeley-Office: that copper can cop a feel anytime!! Geddit!!

Have a heart, cold fish Feeley!! Are you a man or a machine? Robo-Feeley a-romping and a-stomping over the little guys without even giving them a bean to defend themselves. Exterminate!! Exterminate!! Dr Who? We've never heard of ya!! Pick on someone your own shoe size bully boy! Touchy-feely, I don't think!!

Marie Antoinette Hotchin - arenchasickofher? A-swishing and a-swanning over there in Ocker-land while your investors don't have a bowl of gruel to rub together. We know who is really to blame for Greece defaulting and global warming: Miss High-and-Mighty Hotchpotch, fiddling while Rome burns, that's who. To the barricades, chaps!! Bring your knitting!!

Mandy Hotchin, what a gal! Don't pick on our little Mandy-rella, standing by her hubby in his hour of need in her tatty last year's Yvonne Bennetti rags. Don't mind us, we're with the Mand!! You could be our Princess Di. Such a lovely jubbly lass, wouldn't hurt a fly!!

John Key, arenchasickofhim? Dr Evil!! Writing out cheques for one-squillion-dollaaars for all and sundry from his mini-me taxpayers. Oh be-have!!! Or we might have to write you a Dear John letter. Seeya!! Wouldn't want to be ya!!

John Key!! What a smile!! What a guy!! He's a-caring and a-sharing helping all those folks in need!! You can turn your key in my lock anytime!! Geddit?!!

Here they are Debbie's loaded Lotharios!!! Mark Weldon!! Well done Weldon! He's our champ raising $82 million for the earthquake appeal!! Pity you couldn't do the same for the stock exchange Marky but I'd still give you a medal!! Fwhoarr!! Rob Fyfe!! Foxy Fyfe kept his planes up in the air!! Takes more than a puff of ash to bring Air New Zealand's cap'n down to earth!! I'd inaugurate you into the mile high club Robbo!!

Alasdair Thompson!!! Take no prisoners Thompson tellin' it like it is for our big bosses!! Those silly fillies who are always a-skiving and a-diving out of the office for their girly plumbing and costing us all a packet in the process!! I'll pull a sickie for you Al!!! Geddit??!!

* With apologies to Private Eye.

Allan Hubbard Saga

Full SFO Statement on SCF Fraud Investigation

Hubbard Letter to Simon Power
Download Grant Thornton Report 1
Download Grant Thornton Report 2
Download Grant Thornton Report 3
Download Grant Thornton Report 4
Download Grant Thornton Report 5
Download Grant Thornton Report 6

c Share Investor 2011

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Allan Hubbard Saga: The Dirty Half - Dozen

I will be watching with interest the fraud case unfolding in January as 5 individuals were charged yesterday with 21 counts of fraud over the collapse of South Canterbury Finance in 2010.

Their dodgy behavior led to the biggest ever loss in a fraud case in New Zealand and has cost the taxpayer $1.7 billion dollars.

Serious Fraud Office CEO Adam Feeley said the 21 charges allege a variety of offences, including theft by a person in a special relationship; obtaining by deception; false statements by the promoter of a company; and false accounting. The charges carried maximum penalties of between seven and 10 years in prison.

These charges come after 14 months of investigation into the late Allan Hubbard and his involvement in the fraud as the head of South Canterbury Finance and readers will know that he was involved heavily in the day to day running of the company so would have been aware of at least some of the charges made against South Canterbury and even if he wasn't aware the buck stopped with him as head of the company.

What is thus far clear is that there has been systematic fraud within SCF for a number of years but what isnt clear is what part the tight five charged played in that fraud.

It will be a tough court case followed closely by the media and the only hope from this individual is that theses charges attract near or at the maximum sentences if the 5 are found guilty.

Adam Feely indicated yesterday that Allan Hubbard was "a person of interest" in the fraud investigation but he was unable to lay charges against him because of his demise and his estate cannot be charged - charges would clearly have been made yesterday had Hubbard still been around to face them.

I wasn't certain that others would be implicated in these fraud charges and Hubbard watchers would then have little idea what sort of justice he would face had he been able to face charges but we will be able to see with some detail what part he may have played as evidence is given from the tight five.

And Allan makes 6 if you like.

Allan Hubbard Saga

Full SFO Statement on SCF Fraud Investigation

Hubbard Letter to Simon Power

Monday, September 19, 2011

Allan Hubbard Saga: The Ferals: A New Beginning

I wanted to give those that buried their loved one a little more time before I ripped into the scumbags who have leveraged off Allan's death to make their own claim to fame and get themselves some additional exposure. Not happy just to get media exposure while the man is alive they have waited to release the following trash to further their own ends.

An individual called Kerry Grass has prepared a farcical report on the collapse of Aorangi Securities Ltd and Allan Hubbard's part in that collapse. There is nary a mention of the false accounting, misleading information to investors and other huge financial inconsistencies that have been reported by the 7th Grant Thornton Report, so it can easily be dismissed as a waste of time and if you could put a PDF file in the trash that is the best place for it.

What is really galling is that the unofficial Hubbard Supporters Group - the nutbag ones who self appointed and previously used traveling salesman Paul Carruthers as its spokeperson - has used the publicity surrounding Allan's death to launch a facial petition to have the Government dissolved:

Please take part in this important initiative to petition directly the Governor General of New Zealand, calling for him to immediately begin an independent, transparent investigation into the Alan Hubbard affair. And to dissolve parliament and place New Zealand under a care taker government until such time, that the investigation has been satisfactorily implemented.

Below you will find the wording of a letter, suitable for the purpose, copy and paste folks. You may of course change the wording as you see fit. Please use this link http://gg.govt.nz/contact to email it directly to the office of the Governor General and please, back up your submission by sending a printed hard copy to...

Government House
Private Bag 39995
Wellington Mail Centre
Lower Hutt 5045
New Zealand.

Letter:

To: His Excellency the Governor General of New Zealand.
Lt Gen Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae

Dear Excellency,

As a citizen of New Zealand, I petition his Excellency the Governor General to begin an immediate independent, transparent investigation into the Alan Hubbard affair. I ask that all documents relating to this sordid episode in our history, leading to the death of Alan Hubbard, be seized, including interdepartmental and ministerial emails, transcripts, recordings and all documents that might be held by the office of the Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce. I ask that such seizure be carried out by the New Zealand Police under the strict supervision of an independent investigator and suggest this person be Kerry Grass, who is known to the Prime Minister.

I further petition his Excellency to dissolve parliament immediately, putting in place a caretaker government and that the November election be postponed until investigations are satisfactorily implemented, relating to the activities of the Prime Minister, Minister of Commerce, the Securities Commission, the Registrar of Companies, the Companies Office, the various statutory managers involved and the Serious Fraud Office.

There is an unpleasant smell of harassment and corruption that goes to the very top of our political system, all the way to our Prime Minister and that sense of corruption, is certainly serious enough to warrant such investigation and call into question our citizens continued confidence in our government. With the death of Alan Hubbard, there seems little chance of ever proving his innocence, as things stand, but there are glaring questions relating to the activities of all the government offices and Ministers involved, including John Key.

I sight as evidence to give appropriate weight to our citizens call for an immediate investigation and dissolution of parliament, this report by Kerry Grass, an investigator of considerable and note worthy experience.

Report link http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/110...

I thank his Excellency for his indulgence in these matters.

Yours sincerely,
Add your name here!

Now if you can pry yourself off the floor after the uncontrollable laughing you would have been doing while reading this, one would have to wonder the motivation of individuals like this who want to gain maximum publicity by releasing this at the same time Mr Hubbard died in an horrific car crash.

They should have waited a few weeks before getting out the crayons and scratching together a press release because the words bad taste to describe what they have done is an understatement to say the least.

Tacky, self serving, selfish, nasty and completely devoid of intelligence.

As I said a few weeks ago it is best they park it and let the experts decide what happens now.

Allan Hubbard Saga

Full SFO Statement on SCF Fraud Investigation

Hubbard Letter to Simon Power

Monday, September 5, 2011

Allan Hubbard Saga: Time for supporters to let go

Time heals most wounds but if one doesn't let go of what has done the wounding then bitterness, sadness, irrationality and hate will be the order of the day. The biggest impact is on the individual who holds on not on the object of scorn.

In relation to the death of failed financier Allan Hubbard, supporters must now face the reality that his death means the end of the road for a raft of fraud charges brought against him by the Serious Fraud Office and must take that as the most positive conclusion that they could have wished for given the seriousness of the charges brought against him.

Continuing to fight on to "clear his good name" is a non starter. It will cost the litigants emotionally as well as financially to an impossible positive resolution for them given the gravity and sheer weight of the evidence stacked up against Mr Hubbard and of course the fact that he is no longer with us to defend the charges.

There have already been attacks from the more irrational of the Hubbard supporters, like self-appointed spokesman Paul Carruthers, with threats of feeble class action lawsuits against Simon Power and John Key but what does that really achieve?

What it does do is devalue Mr Hubbard's legacy even further than he has himself through the failure of his business empire and being a man of a deeply religious nature he would want those that say they back him to just let it go and get on with their lives.

I am with Fran O'Sullivan, lets release Mrs Hubbard's personal finances from statutory management so she can live life and have enough money for her man's funeral. John Key has already indicated that this will happen so supporters should be thankful for that.

Time to move on.

Allan Hubbard Saga

Full SFO Statement on SCF Fraud Investigation

Hubbard Letter to Simon Power

c Share Investor 2011

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Allan Hubbard Saga: Does death mean the End?

It is very sad to hear the news that beleaguered businessman Allan Hubbard died on Friday in a serious car crash.

While readers know I am no fan of his it is always sad to see someone leave like this.

His reputation will be forever tarnished in the eyes of the public in general and those that lost money at his hands and we will be forever speculating as to the guilt, innocence or otherwise of an individual whose business empire collapsed under the haze of serious fraud charges, forgery, manipulation of accounts, fake investments and a record of inter-company lending that managed to hide the cracks in the veneer for a number of years.

Mr Hubbard was due in court next month to face charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office following a lengthy investigation into his failed finance company, South Canterbury Finance and the question remains as to whether charges can still proceed without Hubbard sitting in a courtroom.

The Serious Fraud Office now need to make a decision whether to proceed - if they can with any practicality - with the 50 charges against him so his supporters can get a decision either way as to Hubbard's culpability or otherwise and the question over his guilt will not linger forever and a day and he is eulogised as saint of sinner in lieu of his day in court.

There seems to be some conjecture over whether an estate can be charged in absense of the defendant but ultimately it will be up to the law, courts and Serious Fraud Office as to what happens next. In the balance of probability it looks like the case will be dropped.

Of course if charges cannot be proceeded with Allan Hubbard -or in this case, his legacy - will be legally off the hook because the SFO would not have a chance to prove his guilt in a court of law. Therefore he will remain forever "innocent".

However, the doubt will still remain.

*My best wishes go to Jean Hubbard & Allan Hubbard's family & his supporters.

Allan Hubbard Saga

Full SFO Statement on SCF Fraud Investigation

Hubbard Letter to Simon Power

Monday, July 4, 2011

Allan Hubbard Saga: 7th Grant Thornton Report - Hubbard Management Funds

The Seventh Grant Thornton Reports (there are two separate ones for HMF & Aorangi) into Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities Limited and Hubbard Management Funds which are the investment vehicles that Allan Hubbard has been charged with fraud over makes for grim reading for Hubbard and investors in the two failed entities which are now in statutory management.

These latest reports cover off some of the detail of fraud charges that have been brought to the Timaru High Court by the SFO just a few weeks ago after over a year of meticulous investigation.

We will cover off HMF here after drilling into Aorangi Securities yesterday in a previous posting.

First word of caution from me in relation to Grant Thornton managing this fund and in the process buying shares to "add value to the investors". While I don't have a problem with the statutory managers continuing to operate the fund as an ongoing concern - in fact they are legally obliged to - I do have a small problem in relation to disclosure as to which shares the managers might be buying. While I know the process of statutory management means they have considerable control over the company they have under management and can operate how they see fit - within the bounds of statutory management laws - I think it might be wise for Grant Thornton to disclose in their reports to the public the number of shares, what prices were paid and what shares are being purchased so people like myself and investors in HMF can follow their fortunes. I dont think it is enough to say the shares being purchased are "Blue Chip".

OK, enough of the barbs!

Lets take a look at the main points contained in the report.

As stated in earlier Thornton Reports there is a $31 million shortfall in the fund as has been stated in investor statements (another possible fraud charge of the 50 Hubbard has been charged with) so the outcome for investors and their payback is still uncertain and will rely on a recovering sharemarket, (which is unlikely given the current state of the economy) a court case in 2012 that will unlikely see an outcome until at least midway through that year and the order in which investors rank for payback depending on who they are and what they have invested in - or increasingly what they think they have invested in.

As with investments in Aorangi Securities, investments in HMF have more than one claim of ownership made on them:

"As part of our work we have established that certain shares may be subject to claims by third parties, in competition with HMF investors. We have not included these shares as part of the portfolio value until we have resolved the issues associated with the claims and can establish whether or not the HMF investors can receive the benefit of those shares. Some of the shares subject to claim have been pledged as security to financiers for borrowings made by Mr Hubbard or businesses related to him". 7th Grant Thornton Report - Hubbard Management Funds

Another issue no doubt that the Serious Fraud Office was concerned about when they laid fraud charges against Mr Hubbard and symptomatic of so much of Hubbard's latter investing practices right across his collapsed business empire.

Like other parts of Mr Hubbard's vast business empire, HMF has lax, missing, misleading and in some cases fraudulent paperwork. Grant Thornton is spending considerable time trying to put the paperwork jigsaw puzzle together and this is partly to blame for the delay in filing papers in the High Court to then allow the distribution of funds to investors out of pocket. This kind of sub - par financial reporting has been going on for at least 5 years.

Perhaps the most glaringly abysmal case of either lax, omitted, misleading or fraudulent parts of book-keeping carried out by Mr Hubbard is his treatment of the cash position of HMF:

"We have been able to complete our work on the cash elements of the portfolio and have continued to find a shortfall in the amount of cash held in prior years. Our assessment of the shortfall in the cash position for 31 March 2010 has altered since our last report due to the finalisation of our investigation to a number of transactions. As a result, the total of cash holdings noted on investor statements has increased by $6.5 million". 7th Grant Thornton Report - Hubbard Management Funds

In the years from 2007 to 2010 there were shortfalls in cash ranging from just over $12 million to almost $25 million. These shortfalls were not entered into HMF accounts and were only uncovered after the Grant Thornton audit. This is likely to be one of the scenarios that the more serious charges of fraud were based on, brought by the SFO against Mr Hubbard.

Hubbard supporters have made suggestions to Grant Thornton that Hubbard's assets could be used to offset losses investors have been subject to thus far but as the Thornton Report points out many of the assets that Hubbard "personally" owns are either subject to promises made to other parties as security or are compromised in some other way either in value or the ability to realise cash easily. In short it is complicated and any promise made by Hubbard to use his own assets to offset loses must be put in the context of other promises made in similar circumstances across other parts of the Hubbard empire that have thus far failed to live up to (because of the impaired nature of the assets), well, his promises.

This 7th Grant Thornton Report on HMF continues along the lines of prior GT reports and uncovers yet more detail as to what has been going on at HMF specifically and adds to the larger picture of a man who was clearly out of control, reckless with others money and willing to do just about anything to dig himself out of the hole he had dug for himself.

I am surprised there have only been 50 charges brought by the SFO.

Allan Hubbard Saga

Full SFO Statement on SCF Fraud Investigation

Hubbard Letter to Simon Power

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Allan Hubbard Saga: 7th Grant Thornton Report - Aorangi Securities

The Seventh Grant Thornton Reports (there are two separate ones for HMF & Aorangi) into Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities Limited and Hubbard Management Funds which are the investment vehicles that Allan Hubbard has been charged with fraud over makes for grim reading for Hubbard and investors in the two failed entities which are now in statutory management.

These latest reports cover off some of the detail of fraud charges that have been brought to the Timaru High Court by the SFO just a few weeks ago after over a year of meticulous investigation.

Lets look at Aorangi here and we will cover off HMF in a separate post.

Investors may receive 8c in the dollar in July but this is defendant on a refinancing loan due at the end of last month. Long- term, investors also may have to wait a lengthy period for money to be returned because of the complex nature of investments, ownership issues, and questions over whether Mr Hubbard's purported transfer of assets from him personally to Aorangi are legitimate.

The first glaring inconsistency in this report is over the loan portfolio and issues are raised over what investors were told they were investing in and what actually happened.

"We have conducted a review of the Aorangi loan portfolio from 2007 to 2010. We have identified a very different investment profile in 2007 when Aorangi had $82 million invested in South Canterbury Finance Limited to June 2010 when it had $60 million invested with business entities associated with Mr Hubbard.

Aorangi’s financial records as at 31 March 2009 (before the transfer of the Hubbard Interests to the charitable trusts) had Aorangi’s assets close to $114 million which included the following investments:

South Canterbury Finance 12.2 million
Southbury Group Limited 33.6 million
Te Tua 13.7 million
Total 59.5 million

These three investments represent more than 50% of Aorangi's assets at that time and are entities closely associated with Mr Hubbard. They do not represent investments supported by mortgage security over land as requested by some investors in their investment authorities.

The Hubbard Interests purportedly transferred to Aorangi later were not included in Aorangi’s financial statements as at 31 March 2009". Seventh Grant Thornton Report - Aorangi

So this is clearly detail of false accounting and misleading investor documentation that Hubbard has been charged for fraud over by the Serious Fraud Office.

It has also been indicated that Allan Hubbard's much talked about (by himself and his supporters) injection of his own personal assets into Aorangi has strings attached. He may actually still legally own around $60 million of assets he says he put into the business so it could make this sum legally claimable by Aorangi as a lender to Hubbard. We all know Mr Hubbard has financial challenges of his own so this could clearly have further deleterious consequences for Aorangi investors considering $60 million is more than half of all the assets in this investment vehicle.

The Thornton report points out the serious nature of Mr Hubbard's claim that he put his own assets into Aorangi to stem investor losses:

"In our introduction to this report we commented on the difficulty being encountered with the purported introduction of Hubbard Interests into Aorangi. Most of the Hubbard Interests recorded in Aorangi were introduced by way of journal entry. There are no records of cash transactions in return for the introduction of the Hubbard Interests. Legal advice provided to us means that we cannot rely upon the purported transfer of Hubbard Interests into Aorangi at this time and as a result, and given the financial position of Mr & Mrs Hubbard, Aorangi investors may face a large shortfall. This means that any proceeds from the disposal of these assets cannot be repaid to investors until the financial position of Mr Hubbard is known, which may take some time and may be subject to dispute from personal creditors." Seventh Grant Thornton Report - Aorangi

Some dodgy bookkeeping and major issues over the validity of what Mr Hubbard claimed he did.

The bulk of the rest of the report basically covers off what has been canvassed many times before. Much of the lending in Aorangi is to individuals or companies which are having difficulties paying loans back - or are not paying at all - assets in Aorangi have often been pledged more than once in relation to security or more than one party may have claims on an asset. Some of these parties are related to Mr Hubbard either personally or are related businesses such as the defunct South Canterbury Finance.

This seventh Grant Thorton Report on Aorangi will put investors into further despair over what they might get back. They will get back something but when and how much are the two big questions.

For Allan Hubbard the evidence that he has been doing wrong becomes even clearer and of course we may see the genesis of all this some time in the High Court if he stands trial for the 50 counts of fraud laid against him by the SFO.

One can only hope that he decides to plead guilty as this will help somewhat expedite the repatriation of funds back to investors that he has lost for them over the last few years.

Allan Hubbard Saga

Full SFO Statement on SCF Fraud Investigation

Hubbard Letter to Simon Power

Share Investor

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Hubbard to blame for collapse of South Canterbury Finance.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

GUEST POST: Deborah Hill Cone: NZ - crazy people, crazy place

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Allan Hubbard Saga: The Dirty Half - Dozen

Monday, September 19, 2011

Allan Hubbard Saga: The Ferals: A New Beginning

Monday, September 5, 2011

Allan Hubbard Saga: Time for supporters to let go

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Allan Hubbard Saga: Does death mean the End?

Monday, July 4, 2011

Allan Hubbard Saga: 7th Grant Thornton Report - Hubbard Management Funds

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Allan Hubbard Saga: 7th Grant Thornton Report - Aorangi Securities

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