Blue Chip quartet to face the music

Mark Bryers. Photo / Jason Dorday

In 12 days, the Blue Chip boys will be forced to come face-to-face more than a year after their money-making dream collapsed, leaving thousands of stricken investors short of $80 million.

In the Auckland District Court on March 27 will be Blue Chip co-founders Mark Bryers and Bob Bangerter, and former directors and shareholders Neil Bell and Rikki Flowerday. Outside will be angry creditors and a string of process servers waiting to nab Bryers for alleged debts.

It will be the first time the four men have been together since the days when money flowed and they all drove expensive European cars.

Since Blue Chip's collapse, Bryers - now estranged from his wife - has moved to Sydney and is running a property-related company there.

Bangerter was forced to sell his $3m Remuera home at a loss to pay back the bank. Flowerday is believed to be living on the Gold Coast and Bell has been working from Qantas House in Auckland's Queen St, Blue Chip's old headquarters.

The Companies Office would not say what the charges against the four men involved. On Friday a spokesman confirmed charges against Flowerday had been laid but had yet to be served.

Bangerter told the Herald on Sunday he faced eight charges for alleged breaches of the Companies Act.

He and partner Maree Aitkenhead said they were "shocked" by the charges, which relate to two companies, ROBlock1 and ROBlock2 Ltd. The couple said they had no idea the companies existed.

They had spent hours helping both the Companies Office and the Serious Fraud Office with its investigations, supplying documents and information, they said. In addition they are working with lawyer Paul Dale and other Blue Chip investors for a court case in May against companies involved in Blue Chip transactions.

Dale, who represents 400 Blue Chip investors, is angry over what he describes as the "tragic human

element" of the saga. Many of his clients face losing their homes and bankruptcy.