Mark Brewer was the "sales legend" for Phoenix Forex, a firm hawking foreign exchange software. It collapsed owing creditors more than $2.1 million. Picture / NZME
Mark Brewer was the "sales legend" for Phoenix Forex, a firm hawking foreign exchange software. It collapsed owing creditors more than $2.1 million. Picture / NZME
Two years on, money ordered paid in 90 days is being drip-fed.
A former bankrupt New Zealand businessman causing controversy in London has yet to make all the reparations he was ordered to pay almost two years ago in Auckland.
Mark Brewer this week made headlines after it emerged he was selling Wisefx foreign exchange trading software in the United Kingdom.
A London woman, Fiona Chui Fong Noden, said she was introduced to a "Marcus Henderson" last month, but it was only after she had paid £12,800 ($29,270) for the software - which she says lost her money - that she realised the person she was dealing with was Brewer.
Brewer has been bankrupted twice in New Zealand; the second was annulled after he cut a deal with creditors months before he was due to be discharged.
Business Insider remembers Brewer as the self-styled "sales legend" for Phoenix Forex, a firm hawking foreign exchange software that sparked a warning from regulators.
The company later collapsed, owing creditors more than $2.1 million.
Before his involvement with Phoenix Forex, Brewer was selling expensive software purporting to let punters know how to win money gambling on horse races.
But the company, Intervest Global (NZ), also collapsed owing hundreds of thousands of dollars and Brewer was convicted of running the business while an undischarged bankrupt.
Then aged 39, he was ordered to pay a $5000 fine and make $190,000 in reparations when he appeared in the Auckland District Court two years ago almost to the day.
Brewer has been bankrupted twice in New Zealand; the second was annulled after he cut a deal with creditors months before he was due to be discharged.
The level of reparation was one reason Brewer avoided a sentence of home detention, although the judge make it clear that the former bankrupt was not "buying his way" out of a custodial sentence.
But two years on and Brewer has yet to pay all of the reparation money, which was supposed to have been paid over 90 days.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman this week said the reparations were still being paid under arrangement, but could not comment on how much was outstanding.
Intervest Global's liquidator, Craig Young, would not comment on the matter.
Rebuff over debt claim
Brazilian dancers outside Santos cafe in Ponsonby last year. Photo / Greg Bowker
The former owner of a Ponsonby cafe has defended a quick-fire attempt to recover an alleged debt of $131,609 for renovations.
Santos Ponsonby, which this month sold the cafe of the same name, was taken to the High Court over the alleged debt, which is money Auckland man Scott Davis agreed to lend when he was in a relationship with the company's director, Anne Sim.
The pair are no longer together, and Sim said it was agreed she would pay back only half of the loan and only if her business was making a profit.
Davis says otherwise and last month sought summary judgment against Sim for the full amount.
Summary judgment is a legal procedure in which one party says there is no arguable defence to a claim and a full trial is not needed.
Associate Judge Hannah Sargisson declined to grant Davis' application and said "unanswered questions remain".
"That suggests that the matter is not appropriately dealt with by way of summary judgment, and should go to a full hearing where the evidence and the parties' credibility can be fully tested," the judge said.
Billing bonanza
A Solid Energy scrap is drawing top legal talent. Photo / Greg Bowker
The legal bills for Cargill International's High Court challenge to Solid Energy's creditor deal could rival the state-owned mining company's debts, with three Queen's Counsel set to clip the ticket.
The star-studded line-up reminds Business Insider of when Solid Energy was in litigation with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and four top-shelf lawyers packed into the courtroom.
It is understood that Queen's Counsel David Chisholm, Alan Galbraith and Bruce Stewart are involved in the latest proceeding, in which Cargill is seeking to be reclassified as a trading rather than a participant creditor.
Cargill says it is owed $27.5 million by Solid Energy, which owned Spring Creek underground mine in partnership with the international conglomerate until 2012.
The Swiss-based giant, which has 155,000 employees in 68 countries in different industries, says it lost US$42.4 million ($63.5 million) in the mine venture.
Guess who, don't sue?
Which High Court judge was overhead bemoaning having to attend a "bloody awful" conference with colleagues this week?
