Capital+Merchant receivers eyeing seized assets of jailed directors

Wayne Douglas. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Long-suffering Capital+Merchant Finance investors are not yet in line to get any of the assets seized from that company's convicted directors.

At least $2 million worth of assets has or is due to be forfeited by Capital+Merchant Finance directors Wayne Douglas and Neal Nicholls.

Nicholls was sentenced to eight years, six months in jail and Douglas eight years, two months.

This followed a Serious Fraud Office trial where both men were found guilty of theft by a person in a special relationship for loans totalling almost $20 million.

Neal Nicholls. Photo / Sarah Ivey

They were also sentenced for misleading investors. Both have since been released on parole.

After they went to jail, police targeted their assets and last year a Whangaparaoa property which Douglas bought in 2008 was forfeited to the Crown.

It had a capital value of $560,000 in 2011 and a $270,000 mortgage over it was due to be repaid and the remaining funds paid into Government coffers.

Assets linked to Nicholls have also been targeted by police and property worth $1.8 million is set to be forfeited to the Crown.

Rather than argue the case in front of a judge, Nicholls and the legal holders of that property reached an out-of-court settlement over the assets with the police.

The settlement was approved last month by the High Court's Justice Christian Whata, who said the agreement was "a common sense compromise" that served the overall interests of justice.

Asked what happens to the property which is forfeited under the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act, an OA spokesman said it is used to:

• Firstly, pay any costs of the Official Assignee in relation to dealing with the forfeited property.

• Secondly, pay any amounts payable by way of legal aid granted to the party whose property has been forfeited.

• Thirdly, pay any amounts required by way of reparation, offender levy or other type of fine imposed on the party whose property has been forfeited.

• Finally, by paying any funds remaining to the Crown into its consolidated account.

Although it was possible for those claiming an interest in forfeited property to apply to the High Court for this to be recognised, the OA was not aware of any application in this case.

The Herald raised the matter with C+M's receivers, who said they were looking into whether those funds could be pursued.

The receivers, from KordaMentha, are holding millions of dollars of settlement funds paid by C+M's auditor, BDO Spicers. No distribution has yet been made from this to investors, who were owed $167 million when it collapsed in 2007.

It is expected receivers will write to investors about a payout in the coming months.