Allan Hubbard Saga: Third Grant Thornton Report reveals more dirt

With the release of the third Grant Thornton Report today the public has got a much better view of what Allan Hubbard and his fellow directors have been up to over at the now defunct Aorangi Securities, Hubbard Management Funds and numerous other business entities put into statutory management a few months ago.

While Thornton Reports 1 and 2 outlined the main points at issue in the case against Allan Hubbard, Report 3 gives us the detail and further evidence. Unfortunately because of the way Allan Hubbard eschewed paperwork, much of the detail has yet to come forth and may not be revealed at all, as there are simply no records on many loans and we would have to rely on the generosity of borrowers to put their hands up and identify themselves. Really who is going to do that.

What we see in the third report are the following main points:

* Aorangi previously advanced Southbury Group Limited (“Southbury”) the sum of $10 million. Southbury’s principal asset appears to be its interest in South Canterbury Finance Limited. Since the last Thornton Report South Canterbury Finance has been placed in receivership. The consequence of that is that Aorangi's investment in Southbury Group is unlikely to be recovered.

* Most assets held by the various entities in Statutory Management have been well overvalued.

* Accounts are either missing, were never in place or confusing.

* The possibility exists for a 23c return on the dollar to investors in Aorangi sometime in the future.

*Securities and assets were used as security for 3rd parties that had interrelated ties and therefore material to other investors easily getting their money back.

* Investments made by Hubbard were high risk, high return.

* Most assets were highly illiquid and therefore had to cash up when needed by investors.

* The majority of shares held were of the unlisted variety which are difficult to sell, especially in a depressed market.

* Many loans made inter-party were given security from other Hubbard related business entities - highly risky

* Hubbard Management Funds made big loans to Allan Hubbard's private businesses.

The worst part of this report reveals in more detail that Allan Hubbard built his investments on the foundations of a very large interrelated domino game. That is to say loans were made here, to related businesses there and if one fell, as they did months ago, the other had the distinct possibility of falling as well.

The other poor reflection on Hubbard was his lax and illegal accounting practices. No paperwork for some loans and he relied on his borrowers to be honest and pay back this and that whenever they could! Now that is not "old fashioned business done with a handshake" as he calls it, and his supporters would back up, it is plain and simple stupidity and very high risk. Old fashioned business did do business with a handshake but they always did the paperwork.

So much for looking after peoples money like it was his.

I am of the view now that the statutory managers have uncovered enough facts -as they are - to pass on their findings, the relevant information to the appropriate regulatory bodies, including the Serious Fraud Office, as to enable prosecution of Mr Hubbard and whoever else was involved in his various financial shell games. I am not confident that Mr Hubbard and his fellow travelers will get their just deserts but at least now charges can be brought and we can see the process proceed from here.

Meanwhile the Serious Fraud Office is finalising its second interim report over the fraud case against Hubbard and multiple business entities and would be considering three options: charging Mr Hubbard, continuing the investigation, or closing it.

Another report from Grant Thornton will be released at the end of October and it is likely to be the forth of many more to come.

Related Share Investor Reading

Download Grant Thornton Report 1
Download Grant Thornton Report 2
Download Grant Thornton Report 3

Allan Hubbard Saga: Will He Walk?
Allan Hubbard Saga: No Longer Bothered by Botherway
Allan Hubbard Saga: 60 Minutes Interview, Sept 23 2010
Allan Hubbard Saga: Supporters head to the exit door
Allan Hubbard Saga: Threats & the Mysterious PWC Report
Allan Hubbard Supporters: Conflict of Interest
VW Veneer reveals BMW heart
VIDEO: Jenni McManus Explains Allan Hubbard Collapse
Allan Hubbard Statement on SCF Receivership
VIDEO: Sandy Maier - full news conference on SCF Receivership
Market Alert: South Canterbury Finance to be placed in Receivership
Allan Hubbard: Ignorant Supporters Blissfully Unaware
Thornton Report 2: Allan Hubbard Guilty as Charged
Allan Hubbard: Full TV3 Interview - July 16 2010
Thornton Report: Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities
Whatever happened to? Muriel Dunn
Bothered by Simon Botherway
Allied Farmers: Prosecutions should be on the cards
Allied Farmers Fraud passes with little fanfare
Allied Farmers: What's it Worth?
Hanover, Allied Farmers deal more of the same
Jane Diplock Q & A Interview
Hanover's "White Knights" are really daylight robbers
Hanover collapse: It was just a matter of time
Money Managers Saga: 3 Story wrap
Money Managers gives First Step investors the middle finger
Greed is bad: Geneva Finance Folds
Financial 101: Learn before you leap
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c Share Investor 2010

Allan Hubbard Saga: Will He Walk?

With the third Grant Thornton Report due out sometime today or tomorrow on the details surrounding the statutory management of nearly a dozen Allan Hubbard charitable trusts and businesses and a decision due within weeks from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over possible fraudulent business practices on the part of Mr Hubbard and the business that he had financial and personal control over, it is looking doubtful as to whether Mr Hubbard is going to have to answer to his crimes.

I say this not because he hasn't committed fraud or been responsible for hoodwinking investors and taxpayers because he clearly has. The reason that I say what I am saying is that the track record for the SFO, the Securities Commission and a whole host of other financial regulatory bodies has been poor when it comes to actually prosecuting the perpetrators of financial crimes.

Just yesterday a Partner of Ernst & Young was found guilty for breaches in accounting disclosures for Feltex Carpets. Feltex Carpets directors all walked away scott free. Of the directors and CEOs of failed finance companies that have been brought to court, we have seen a myriad of them walk away from court proceedings either without any censure or with a small fine or a slap on the hand with a dry bus ticket.

Nobody has gone to jail, nobody has had a serious fine and it looks likely that nobody will.

These are the Hotchins, the Watsons the Bryers et al.

Of course this is unacceptable to most of us. These financial criminals have ripped off investors, through fraud, subterfuge and their own base greed, many investors have lost all they had and their lives are ruined and some have even taken the final solution.

The Allan Hubbard case appears to be no different. He has been rightly tarred with the same brush as the aforementioned and has the ignominious position as one of the few of these criminals to end up costing the taxpayer billions of dollars as his empire collapsed around him.

I would like to think that this case might be different and that Mr Hubbard and his fellow directors will be doing prison time for their misdeeds but either laws surrounding our financial regulatory regime are weak (they clearly are in my opinion) and or the prosecutors within our various financial regulators are sub-par.

Either way Mr Hubbard stands a good chance of getting away with his swindle even if he is found guilty of the accusations to be brought against him over the coming days and weeks.

Lets hope not.

Related Share Investor Reading

Download Grant Thornton Report 1
Download Grant Thornton Report 2

Allan Hubbard Saga: No Longer Bothered by Botherway
Allan Hubbard Saga: 60 Minutes Interview, Sept 23 2010
Allan Hubbard Saga: Supporters head to the exit door
Allan Hubbard Saga: Threats & the Mysterious PWC Report
Allan Hubbard Supporters: Conflict of Interest
VW Veneer reveals BMW heart
VIDEO: Jenni McManus Explains Allan Hubbard Collapse
Allan Hubbard Statement on SCF Receivership
VIDEO: Sandy Maier - full news conference on SCF Receivership
Market Alert: South Canterbury Finance to be placed in Receivership
Allan Hubbard: Ignorant Supporters Blissfully Unaware
Thornton Report 2: Allan Hubbard Guilty as Charged
Allan Hubbard: Full TV3 Interview - July 16 2010
Thornton Report: Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities
Whatever happened to? Muriel Dunn
Bothered by Simon Botherway
Allied Farmers: Prosecutions should be on the cards
Allied Farmers Fraud passes with little fanfare
Allied Farmers: What's it Worth?
Hanover, Allied Farmers deal more of the same
Jane Diplock Q & A Interview
Hanover's "White Knights" are really daylight robbers
Hanover collapse: It was just a matter of time
Money Managers Saga: 3 Story wrap
Money Managers gives First Step investors the middle finger
Greed is bad: Geneva Finance Folds
Financial 101: Learn before you leap
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c Share Investor 2010

Allan Hubbard Saga: No Longer Bothered by Botherway

The following is a meaculpa of sorts to Simon Botherway, a man entangled in what was perceived as a conflict of interest on his part over the Statutory Management of a couple of Allan Hubbards financial entities back in June 2010.

I wrote this back in June:

Mr Botherway and his SEC have been of course behind the statutory management of Allan Hubbard and his Aoarangi Securities, a crackdown which has apparently come out of the blue and inconsistent with the SECs track record in terms of the aforementioned bus ticket slapping.

It turns out that this is where things get really interesting in terms of Mr Botherway and his capacity as the a SEC board member. Stuff.co.nz has reported this morning that Mr Botherway has a conflict of interest of his own when it comes to his recommendation to send Mr Hubbard to Coventry:

A member of the Securities Commission (Mr Botherway) which recommended Allan and Jean Hubbard be placed in statutory management is also the brother of a businessman placed in receivership by South Canterbury Finance (SCF) last year. Stuff.co.nz

Allan Hubbard is the owner of SCF.

Mr Bothwerway only disclosed his conflict yesterday:

Commission member Simon Botherway yesterday declared he had a "potential conflict of interest" in the Hubbard case as the brother of businessman Jonathan Botherway.

Jonathan Botherway's hospitality empire collapsed in July 2009 after SCF, which was then owed $7.8 million, put him in receivership.

Simon Botherway would not comment yesterday and instead referred questions to the commission. Shareinvestor Blog, June 25, 2010

Well, it turns out stuff.co.nz and by implication myself, was wrong and wish to apologise to Simon for implicating him at all.

I am now aware of the facts over this perceived conflict and am now convinced that there is very little to it. My anonymous source assures me the following is accurate and I have no reason to doubt this source.

This is why:

* South Canturbury Finance did not put Mr Botherway's brother into receivership as is widely accepted in the majority of media reports.

NZB (NZ Breweries) appointed a receiver on Friday 26th of June 2009. Their receivers sent a fax to SCF about 11am that morning giving them until 2pm to respond, SCF had no option but to appoint their own receivers to Merivale Ale House (Auckland Bars).

A week later PWC advised SCF to place the South Island bars in receivership so they could control all the businesses.

Read the publicly available Receivers Report

* Botherway did not receive the anonymous letter of complaint (from an Aorangi investor to the Securities Commission) and has not actually seen it. Hubbard's supporters have claimed he has.

The investigation was led by the Companies Office and to the knowledge of my source* there were no Sec Com staff involved in it, and there were no Members of the Commission involved).

*Botherway didn't author any report on Aorangi or any of the other parties recommended for Statutory Management as widely reported and pushed by Hubbard supporters.

This apparent conflict has been the red hearing for Allan Hubbard supporters, and they have been using David Cunliffe, in parliament and on his own facebook page to go after Botherway. It has turned into a political muck-raking situation now for Labour in their pursuit of National over South Canterbury Finance but as we know the facts of the case in David Cunliffe's eyes are only as good as the information being supplied to him from Allan Hubbard Supporters. That information is clearly inaccurate at best and a complete fabrication at worst.

Cunliffe is of course using parliamentary privilege to divulge this stuff and he is clearly misleading the house.

* Wishing to remain anonymous but a credible source.

Related Share Investor Reading

Download Grant Thornton Report 1
Download Grant Thornton Report 2

Allan Hubbard Saga: 60 Minutes Interview, Sept 23 2010
Allan Hubbard Saga: Supporters head to the exit door
Allan Hubbard Saga: Threats & the Mysterious PWC Report
Allan Hubbard Supporters: Conflict of Interest
VW Veneer reveals BMW heart
VIDEO: Jenni McManus Explains Allan Hubbard Collapse
Allan Hubbard Statement on SCF Receivership
VIDEO: Sandy Maier - full news conference on SCF Receivership
Market Alert: South Canterbury Finance to be placed in Receivership
Allan Hubbard: Ignorant Supporters Blissfully Unaware
Thornton Report 2: Allan Hubbard Guilty as Charged
Allan Hubbard: Full TV3 Interview - July 16 2010
Thornton Report: Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities
Whatever happened to? Muriel Dunn
Bothered by Simon Botherway
Allied Farmers: Prosecutions should be on the cards
Allied Farmers Fraud passes with little fanfare
Allied Farmers: What's it Worth?
Hanover, Allied Farmers deal more of the same
Jane Diplock Q & A Interview
Hanover's "White Knights" are really daylight robbers
Hanover collapse: It was just a matter of time
Money Managers Saga: 3 Story wrap
Money Managers gives First Step investors the middle finger
Greed is bad: Geneva Finance Folds
Financial 101: Learn before you leap
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c Share Investor 2010

Allan Hubbard Saga: 60 Minutes Interview, Sept 23 2010 (UPDATED)

Source: TV3

In a 60 minutes interview with Allan Hubbard last night Hubbard claims an anonymous unsigned letter was the only reason Hubbard Management Funds and Aorangi Securities were put into statutory management and that he put $40 million of his own money into the latter to keep it afloat.

These two claims I now know are falsehoods and there will be more about that from this blog around these and other falsehoods, over the next week or so. There have been other complaints and any assets Hubbard says he put into either of these two entities were worthless and or wrapped up in inter party lending complications.

I feel sorry for the investors in those companies but like Allan they are blaming everyone else but the man responsible, Mr Hubbard.

Hubbard blames everybody else as well and specifically his fellow directors for not letting him invest in the stockmarket. He claims they wanted to invest in the property deals that ultimately led to the collapse of his empire.

The 60 minutes piece was filmed in Timaru during last weekends hubbardfest led by Paul Carruthers, formerly of the Standby Hubbard Support group.

A soft interview, without thorough investigation, designed to make Allan Hubbard look good.

Poor journalism.

Related Share Investor Reading

Download Grant Thornton Report 1
Download Grant Thornton Report 2

Allan Hubbard Saga: Supporters head to the exit door
Allan Hubbard Saga: Threats & the Mysterious PWC Report
Allan Hubbard Supporters: Conflict of Interest
VW Veneer reveals BMW heart
VIDEO: Jenni McManus Explains Allan Hubbard Collapse
Allan Hubbard Statement on SCF Receivership
VIDEO: Sandy Maier - full news conference on SCF Receivership
Market Alert: South Canterbury Finance to be placed in Receivership
Allan Hubbard: Ignorant Supporters Blissfully Unaware
Thornton Report 2: Allan Hubbard Guilty as Charged
Allan Hubbard: Full TV3 Interview - July 16 2010
Thornton Report: Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities
Whatever happened to? Muriel Dunn
Bothered by Simon Botherway
Allied Farmers: Prosecutions should be on the cards
Allied Farmers Fraud passes with little fanfare
Allied Farmers: What's it Worth?
Hanover, Allied Farmers deal more of the same
Jane Diplock Q & A Interview
Hanover's "White Knights" are really daylight robbers
Hanover collapse: It was just a matter of time
Money Managers Saga: 3 Story wrap
Money Managers gives First Step investors the middle finger
Greed is bad: Geneva Finance Folds
Financial 101: Learn before you leap
Kevin's Blog


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c Share Investor 2010

Allan Hubbard Saga: Supporters head to the exit door

Interesting that in a piece in the Otago Daily Times on the case that Allan Hubbard supporters say they have against the Statutory Management of several of his financial entities and the spectacular crash of South Canterbury Finance indicates that it is unraveling quicker than a mangy cat pulling on a wet ball of wool:

"Chief Ombudsman Beverley Wakem was yesterday forced to tone down claims her office was investigating an alleged conflict of interest against Securities Commission member Simon Botherway, saying it was looking at the process and procedures followed, not Mr Botherway's actions.

Also yesterday, a formal business connection claimed by the group to exist between Mr Botherway and Christchurch businessman George Kerr was revealed to have ended in December 2004, when Mr Kerr resigned as a director of Brooke Asset Management.

Information on the New Zealand Companies Office website shows Mr Botherway resigned as a director in July 2008 and that Brooke Asset Management is now owned by Macquarie Investment Management Ltd.

The Securities Commission in June recommended Aorangi Securities, seven charitable Trusts and Mr and Mrs Hubbard be placed in statutory management, but it was several days later that Mr Botherway revealed that last year businesses owned by his brother, Jonathan, had been placed in receivership by South Canterbury Finance (SCF), owing $7.8 million.

The Stand By Hubbard campaigners accuse Mr Botherway of having a conflict of interest as a result, a claim that appeared to have some substance when the Office of the Ombudsmen earlier this month agreed to an investigation.

But Ms Wakem contacted media yesterday to emphasise her office was not investigating Mr Botherway and the process was fair and administrative justice was followed in the disclosure of a potential conflict of interest." Otago Daily Times, 22 Sept 2010

Those of you reading my comments on this long-winded saga will know that Allan Hubbard's supporters didn't really have a case from the get-go.

Claims by Paul Carruthers, one of the main drivers of the case supporting Hubbard, have ranged from multiple conflicts of interests, fraud by several politicians and business identities and a conspiracy planned by John Key's Government to set up a bank with his mates in Canterbury.

Claims made by Carruthers and something I was questioning myself, that Simon Botherway had a conflict of interest as his position as a board member of the Securities Commission clashed with its involvement in the statutory management of the Hubbards and the fact that a company owned by Botherway's brother was wound up by South Canterbury Finance, are also looking quite tentative given comments made that the ombudsman is only looking at processes followed rather than the actions of Mr Botherway.

Paul Carruthers submitted the complaint to the ombudsman.

I agree with Carruthers that Botherway's conflict should be investigated. I believe that no matter if he didn't have a "real" conflict of interest - I cant see how he didn't - it is the perception in the public's eye that counts and it is clear that our perception is that Simon Botherway had a conflict at least in that sense.

On Paul, he has spontaneously combusted into the ether after my questioning of him on this post and on a personal Facebook exchange with me yesterday, on the validity and availability of the Pricewaterhouse Coopers Report that his group have placed utmost importance on.

"I never claimed to have it but that doesn't mean I haven't seen it. Why do you want to see it if you are already convinced he is guilty? Are they not paying you enough? Hedging your bets just in case huh?" Facebook Exchange

Paul's personal Facebook page has vanished as have all the comments on the Help Allan Hubbard Facebook page as well as all documents related to his "case" on the Standbyhubbard.org site.

Is Paul sitting somewhere in a corner violently rocking back and forth? He doesn't do quiet at all.

Given the slow unraveling of evidence against Allan Hubbard thus far and more to come over the coming weeks - Grant Thornton Report 3 is due next week - I am betting that Paul and his merry band of pied piper followers will disappear into the ether with not much more than a squeak.

Pressure from myself and others seems to be batting the bastards back.

The silence from the affirmative is deafening.

Related Share Investor Reading

Download Grant Thornton Report 1
Download Grant Thornton Report 2

Allan Hubbard Saga: Threats & the Mysterious PWC Report
Allan Hubbard Supporters: Conflict of Interest
VW Veneer reveals BMW heart
VIDEO: Jenni McManus Explains Allan Hubbard Collapse
Allan Hubbard Statement on SCF Receivership
VIDEO: Sandy Maier - full news conference on SCF Receivership
Market Alert: South Canterbury Finance to be placed in Receivership
Allan Hubbard: Ignorant Supporters Blissfully Unaware
Thornton Report 2: Allan Hubbard Guilty as Charged
Allan Hubbard: Full TV3 Interview - July 16 2010
Thornton Report: Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities
Whatever happened to? Muriel Dunn
Bothered by Simon Botherway
Allied Farmers: Prosecutions should be on the cards
Allied Farmers Fraud passes with little fanfare
Allied Farmers: What's it Worth?
Hanover, Allied Farmers deal more of the same
Jane Diplock Q & A Interview
Hanover's "White Knights" are really daylight robbers
Hanover collapse: It was just a matter of time
Money Managers Saga: 3 Story wrap
Money Managers gives First Step investors the middle finger
Greed is bad: Geneva Finance Folds
Financial 101: Learn before you leap
Kevin's Blog


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c Share Investor 2010

Allan Hubbard Saga: Threats & the Mysterious PWC Report (UPDATED)

Update includes footnote of Mr Carruther's response to me on the PWC Report.


Back to the furore over Allan Hubbard and the collapse of his financial empire due to to dubious business practices and fraud.

After writing this last week constructively criticizing the Hubbard Support Group and other posts on the topic, I got legal threats poked at me from the hapless Paul Carruthers, the head of the support group. Threats to myself and family of bodily and other harm came from his supporters into my email box and through Facebook over the weekend.

The police have been made aware of this but say they can do nothing unless it is a death threat or actual harm is done.

No doubt they want me to shut my mouth but if you know me you will know that I don't give in to threats of any kind so I will continue to discuss this important issue with my readers - approx 12000 in August and growing.

I just have to say attack my message or opinion if you will but there is no reason to get personal with me.

Going back to the issue at hand, I keep coming across this magical mystery answer to my probing questions on the Statutory Management of two of Hubbard's failed companies and apparently some of his other failed companies as well. That is, there is a favourable opinion in a Pricewaterhouse Coopers Report that differs from the publicly released Grant Thornton Report as to why Statutory Management was implemented.

The problem for me is that this PWC report is somehow only news to Hubbard's supporters. The groundbreaking evidence that Paul Carruthers and his followers say they have they are keeping to themselves.

Good lord I would be shouting it from the rooftops. They were very vocal last weekend when a small group of them met to decide their next plan of action, they even got 10 seconds on the Tele.

No PWC report was released !

You would have to conclude then given the otherwise vocal support for their man, the fact they don't release the PWC report they say they have - and I have no reason to doubt they have some piece of paper with ink on it - means what they do have just doesn't hold up to any scrutiny.

I have asked Paul Carruthers for the PWC Report when they first mentioned it weeks back, again today from him and several other key Hubbard supporters. Nothing has, to date, been forthcoming.

Stay tuned!

Footnote: Paul Carruthers, the main backer of the Hubbard Support Group, has seen the PWC Report but claims not to have it. Funny when it looks like at least he has been quoting it verbatim in much of his correspondence to his supporters.

It doesn't look like this report will see the light of day.


Related Share Investor Reading

Download Grant Thornton Report 1
Download Grant Thornton Report 2

Allan Hubbard Supporters: Conflict of Interest
VW Veneer reveals BMW heart
VIDEO: Jenni McManus Explains Allan Hubbard Collapse
Allan Hubbard Statement on SCF Receivership
VIDEO: Sandy Maier - full news conference on SCF Receivership
Market Alert: South Canterbury Finance to be placed in Receivership
Allan Hubbard: Ignorant Supporters Blissfully Unaware
Thornton Report 2: Allan Hubbard Guilty as Charged
Allan Hubbard: Full TV3 Interview - July 16 2010
Thornton Report: Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities
Whatever happened to? Muriel Dunn
Bothered by Simon Botherway
Allied Farmers: Prosecutions should be on the cards
Allied Farmers Fraud passes with little fanfare
Allied Farmers: What's it Worth?
Hanover, Allied Farmers deal more of the same
Jane Diplock Q & A Interview
Hanover's "White Knights" are really daylight robbers
Hanover collapse: It was just a matter of time
Money Managers Saga: 3 Story wrap
Money Managers gives First Step investors the middle finger
Greed is bad: Geneva Finance Folds
Financial 101: Learn before you leap
Kevin's Blog


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c Share Investor 2010

Allan Hubbard Supporters: Conflict of Interest

If I have a possible conflict of interest when writing on the subject of investing I always declare my financial interest, if any.

You have to be upfront and direct with people otherwise they wont take you seriously if they subsequently find out you write with a fork typewriter - ask David Garrett.

With Allan Hubbard and his collapsed Aorangi Securities and Hubbard Management Funds, which are now under statutory management, his key supporters need to show their hand lest they be tarred with a conflict of interest.

The leaders of the Hubbard support group, Paul Carruthers, Michelle Helliwell, Keiran Trass and other reasonably prominent people who I am aware of but wont name because they haven't yet publicly come out, need to declare what financial or personal interest they had and still have in either of Hubbard's failed companies or the man himself and therefore what they might stand to gain by grandstanding on Facebook, television and every other media outlet they fevourishly send press releases to in the hope of getting a scrap of publicity.

I mean, why else would you attack other individuals or groups who had nothing material to do with the collapse of Hubbard's empire unless you had the possibility of a financial gain sometime in the future?

I don't think they are narcissistic attention seekers, although at times they unintentionally cross that line.

Those of us who are not rabid Hubbard supporters would be entitled to think that you had more skin in the game than just losing a personal investment in either of the two Hubbard companies under Statutory Management because of possible fraud, insider lending irregularities, fabricated investments and inadequate and misleading paperwork.

If it was just money lost in Hubbard Management Funds and Aorangi Securities wouldn't you want to go after the individual or company responsible? That is, Allan Hubbard and his directors, instead of trying to scapegoat the responsibility to the Statutory Managers, the Government, Simon Botherway, Bill English, John Key and a conspiracy put forward by Mr Carruthers that the statutory management process was a ruse by the National Party to set up a private bank in the South Island for some of their mates down there - Mr Carruthers does have an active imagination, Ill give him that.

There is a disconnect then when it comes to those leaders of the Hubbard support group who have publicly put themselves forward. A disconnect between who is responsible for losing money in the aforementioned Hubbard investment failures - the individuals who invested or those that were advised by so-called experts and Allan Hubbard are clearly to blame - and those who run the Hubbard support groups who want to shift the blame to others and not Allan Hubbard and ultimately the investors themselves.

We have seen countless other finance companies of Hubbard's ilk go under because of dodgy dealings but outspoken investors have always pointed the finger largely at where the blame lay. At their advisers feet, with the company or individuals in the company itself or indeed themselves for being ignorant or too greedy in a small number of cases. They have never involved parties that have had nothing to do with the collapse of the respective finance company.

What have the leaders of the Hubbard support group got to gain from pointing the finger at the wrong people?

I would suggest you follow the money. Where you find the most moola to gain or lose or a back to re-slap you will find the most vocal trying to duck their responsibility.

It is called risk guys, take a look in the mirror and spell it out slowly.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

At least be upfront though for the reason for your support and declare any interests.

It is the honest thing to do.


* Just a wee footnote:

Just over 200 devotees of Allan Hubbard turned out today in Timaru in the vain hope that statutory managers, Grant Thornton would be forced to overturn a statutory management that is legally unchallengeable.


Related Share Investor Reading

Download Grant Thornton Report 1
Download Grant Thornton Report 2

VW Veneer reveals BMW heart
VIDEO: Jenni McManus Explains Allan Hubbard Collapse
Allan Hubbard Statement on SCF Receivership
VIDEO: Sandy Maier - full news conference on SCF R...s
Market Alert: South Canterbury Finance to be placed in Receivership
Allan Hubbard: Ignorant Supporters Blissfully Unaware
Thornton Report 2: Allan Hubbard Guilty as Charged
Allan Hubbard: Full TV3 Interview - July 16 2010
Thornton Report: Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities
Whatever happened to? Muriel Dunn
Bothered by Simon Botherway
Allied Farmers: Prosecutions should be on the cards
Allied Farmers Fraud passes with little fanfare
Allied Farmers: What's it Worth?
Hanover, Allied Farmers deal more of the same
Jane Diplock Q & A Interview
Hanover's "White Knights" are really daylight robbers
Hanover collapse: It was just a matter of time
Money Managers Saga: 3 Story wrap
Money Managers gives First Step investors the middle finger
Greed is bad: Geneva Finance Folds
Financial 101: Learn before you leap
Kevin's Blog


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Buy The Intelligent Investor & more @ Fishpond.co.nz




c Share Investor 2010

VIDEO: Ministerial Statement on SCF Failure - Bill English, Sept 8 2010

• [View]

Bill English today explaining in parliament why South Canterbury Finance failed and the Governments response to it in the past, the bailout of investors and the cost to taxpayers of Allan Hubbards failure and fraudulent behaviour.

See below for other party leaders responses and part 8 for Bill English' counter.

• Ministerial Statement - South Canterbury Finance - Part 2
• Ministerial Statement - South Canterbury Finance - Part 3
• Ministerial Statement - South Canterbury Finance - Part 4
• Ministerial Statement - South Canterbury Finance - Part 5
• Ministerial Statement - South Canterbury Finance - Part 6
• Ministerial Statement - South Canterbury Finance - Part 7
• Ministerial Statement - South Canterbury Finance - Part 8

Related Share Investor Reading

Download Grant Thornton Report 1
Download Grant Thornton Report 2

VW Veneer reveals BMW heart
VIDEO: Jenni McManus Explains Allan Hubbard Collapse
Allan Hubbard Statement on SCF Receivership
VIDEO: Sandy Maier - full news conference on SCF R...s
Market Alert: South Canterbury Finance to be placed in Receivership
Allan Hubbard: Ignorant Supporters Blissfully Unaware
Thornton Report 2: Allan Hubbard Guilty as Charged
Allan Hubbard: Full TV3 Interview - July 16 2010
Thornton Report: Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities
Whatever happened to? Muriel Dunn
Bothered by Simon Botherway
Allied Farmers: Prosecutions should be on the cards
Allied Farmers Fraud passes with little fanfare
Allied Farmers: What's it Worth?
Hanover, Allied Farmers deal more of the same
Jane Diplock Q & A Interview
Hanover's "White Knights" are really daylight robbers
Hanover collapse: It was just a matter of time
Money Managers Saga: 3 Story wrap
Money Managers gives First Step investors the middle finger
Greed is bad: Geneva Finance Folds
Financial 101: Learn before you leap
Kevin's Blog


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Buy The Intelligent Investor & more @ Fishpond.co.nz




c Share Investor 2010

VW Veneer reveals BMW heart

While waiting to get my fish and chips order today for lunch, while out planting some trees for a client I started reading an article by Deborah Hill Cone in the Friday September 3rd edition of the Business Herald lift-out (5 year old "Womans Days" with Rach & Rod on the cover don't do it for me anymore) and what was she writing about?

Yep the man without a plan, the man everyone loves to hate, formally the richest man in Timaru (where is that again?) Allan Hubbard.

I wasn't going to go back there but after my order of 1 chips and a scoop arrived (that is what they call it in the Hawkesbay where I lived my formative years) I just had to keep reading.

Debs made some really good points.

We already know the financial shenanigans and shell games Mr Hubbard and his good mates were up to with other peoples moola but Debs, (I can call her that because I live in Auckland and we are a close knit family up here too) as she does, came at things with quite a unique angle.

She was looking at the intensely close, almost incestuous nature of the order of things in the part of the country that Hubbard and his mates come from.

This she contends, dates back from early settlers who arrived in boats from old mother England and continued their class distinctions in their new land that shows today in the back slapping, secret handshaking, old schoolboy network that supported Mr Hubbard and that supports him to this day. This New Zealand breed of wannabe aristocrats didn't like to flaunt their wealth Though.

She described them well as the airtex wearing, holey jumpered men who looked like paupers but were actually well to do and their lady companions who "wore their collars upturned".

It was kinda like an awe shucks look at me mentality I'm so down to earth, I must be I'm dressed like a bum.

Witness the epitome of this in Mr Hubbard. New Zealands answer to Warren Buffett, who is well known for his frugality and homespun hokiness - he would call it old fashioned. Mr Hubbard is top to toe well-worn Hallensteins circa 1950 and even drives a beat up VW which doesn't look like it has seen much back seat action (if at all) since it was bought by him in the 1960s.

Of course at at one stage though the NBR valued this man a half a billion.

That is of course when this whole charade unravels into reality.

These strange people in this clique of people down there in the Canterbury area (If you are reading this and actually flaunt your wealth like most Aucklanders then I am probably not talking about you) stick together like a Parnell Girl to her Takapuna Grammar old boy 10 years her senior and the motivation for support of Allan Hubbard seems connected to the tribe mentality of looking after the individuals in the pack, should the whole tribes reputation suffer a mortal moral, legal or in this case financial gaping wound.

If I maybe serious for one moment, this appears to be the reason why the main pack behind support for Allan Hubbard, the old boys network of Canterbury ( I am a bit jealous because Onehunga High School where I hail from doesn't have this sort of network) is rallying the ignorant, angry, lonely hoi poloi around them in the hope that the herd will stop the all important old boys network from a fatal blow.

This sort of protection of the big fish is great if you can get it and the network in and around Christchurch and Timaru are doing a sterling job of circling the wagons in the face of the reality of even bigger fish from the Serious Fraud Office and forensic auditors crawling so far up Mr Hubbard's backside not even a Christchurch Boys High School old boy could get a finger up there let alone anything else.

I had a different opinion of the support for Mr Hubbard, I thought it was sheer ignorance and stupidity (well?) but my good mate Debs up here in Auckland has convinced me it is mostly about protectionism; of a group that has always seen itself as the ones who make the decisions and wield the power over ordinary folk like you and me.

Amazing what you can find in yesterdays fish and chip paper huh?


Related Share Investor Reading

Download Grant Thornton Report 1
Download Grant Thornton Report 2

VIDEO: Jenni McManus Explains Allan Hubbard Collapse
Allan Hubbard Statement on SCF Receivership
VIDEO: Sandy Maier - full news conference on SCF R...s
Market Alert: South Canterbury Finance to be placed in Receivership
Allan Hubbard: Ignorant Supporters Blissfully Unaware
Thornton Report 2: Allan Hubbard Guilty as Charged
Allan Hubbard: Full TV3 Interview - July 16 2010
Thornton Report: Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities
Whatever happened to? Muriel Dunn
Bothered by Simon Botherway
Allied Farmers: Prosecutions should be on the cards
Allied Farmers Fraud passes with little fanfare
Allied Farmers: What's it Worth?
Hanover, Allied Farmers deal more of the same
Jane Diplock Q & A Interview
Hanover's "White Knights" are really daylight robbers
Hanover collapse: It was just a matter of time
Money Managers Saga: 3 Story wrap
Money Managers gives First Step investors the middle finger
Greed is bad: Geneva Finance Folds
Financial 101: Learn before you leap
Kevin's Blog


Recommended Amazon Reading


The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition) by Benjamin Graham
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c Share Investor 2010

VW Veneer reveals BMW heart

While waiting to get my fish and chips order today for lunch, while out planting some trees for a client I started reading an article by Deborah Hill Cone in the Friday September 3rd edition of the Business Herald lift-out (5 year old "Womans Days" with Rach & Rod on the cover don't do it for me anymore) and what was she writing about?

Yep the man without a plan, the man everyone loves to hate, formally the richest man in Timaru (where is that again?) Allan Hubbard.

I wasn't going to go back there but after my order of 1 chips and a scoop arrived (that is what they call it in the Hawkesbay where I lived my formative years) I just had to keep reading.

Debs made some really good points.

We already know the financial shenanigans and shell games Mr Hubbard and his good mates were up to with other peoples moola but Debs, (I can call her that because I live in Auckland and we are a close knit family up here too) as she does, came at things with quite a unique angle.

She was looking at the intensely close, almost incestuous nature of the order of things in the part of the country that Hubbard and his mates come from.

This she contends, dates back from early settlers who arrived in boats from old mother England and continued their class distinctions in their new land that shows today in the back slapping, secret handshaking, old schoolboy network that supported Mr Hubbard and that supports him to this day. This New Zealand breed of wannabe aristocrats didn't like to flaunt their wealth Though.

She described them well as the airtex wearing, holey jumpered men who looked like paupers but were actually well to do and their lady companions who "wore their collars upturned".

It was kinda like an awe shucks look at me mentality I'm so down to earth, I must be I'm dressed like a bum.

Witness the epitome of this in Mr Hubbard. New Zealands answer to Warren Buffett, who is well known for his frugality and homespun hokiness - he would call it old fashioned. Mr Hubbard is top to toe well-worn Hallensteins circa 1950 and even drives a beat up VW which doesn't look like it has seen much back seat action (if at all) since it was bought by him in the 1960s.

Of course at at one stage though the NBR valued this man a half a billion.

That is of course when this whole charade unravels into reality.

These strange people in this clique of people down there in the Canterbury area (If you are reading this and actually flaunt your wealth like most Aucklanders then I am probably not talking about you) stick together like a Parnell Girl to her Takapuna Grammar old boy 10 years her senior and the motivation for support of Allan Hubbard seems connected to the tribe mentality of looking after the individuals in the pack, should the whole tribes reputation suffer a mortal moral, legal or in this case financial gaping wound.

If I maybe serious for one moment, this appears to be the reason why the main pack behind support for Allan Hubbard, the old boys network of Canterbury ( I am a bit jealous because Onehunga High School where I hail from doesn't have this sort of network) is rallying the ignorant, angry, lonely hoi poloi around them in the hope that the herd will stop the all important old boys network from a fatal blow.

This sort of protection of the big fish is great if you can get it and the network in and around Christchurch and Timaru are doing a sterling job of circling the wagons in the face of the reality of even bigger fish from the Serious Fraud Office and forensic auditors crawling so far up Mr Hubbard's backside not even a Christchurch Boys High School old boy could get a finger up there let alone anything else.

I had a different opinion of the support for Mr Hubbard, I thought it was sheer ignorance and stupidity (well?) but my good mate Debs up here in Auckland has convinced me it is mostly about protectionism; of a group that has always seen itself as the ones who make the decisions and wield the power over ordinary folk like you and me.

Amazing what you can find in yesterdays fish and chip paper huh?


Related Share Investor Reading

Download Grant Thornton Report 1
Download Grant Thornton Report 2

VIDEO: Jenni McManus Explains Allan Hubbard Collapse
Allan Hubbard Statement on SCF Receivership
VIDEO: Sandy Maier - full news conference on SCF R...s
Market Alert: South Canterbury Finance to be placed in Receivership
Allan Hubbard: Ignorant Supporters Blissfully Unaware
Thornton Report 2: Allan Hubbard Guilty as Charged
Allan Hubbard: Full TV3 Interview - July 16 2010
Thornton Report: Allan Hubbard's Aorangi Securities
Whatever happened to? Muriel Dunn
Bothered by Simon Botherway
Allied Farmers: Prosecutions should be on the cards
Allied Farmers Fraud passes with little fanfare
Allied Farmers: What's it Worth?
Hanover, Allied Farmers deal more of the same
Jane Diplock Q & A Interview
Hanover's "White Knights" are really daylight robbers
Hanover collapse: It was just a matter of time
Money Managers Saga: 3 Story wrap
Money Managers gives First Step investors the middle finger
Greed is bad: Geneva Finance Folds
Financial 101: Learn before you leap
Kevin's Blog


Recommended Fishpond Reading



Buy The Intelligent Investor & more @ Fishpond.co.nz




c Share Investor 2010