KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - Australian artist Ken Done is suing the Commonwealth Bank's financial advice arm for A$53 million ($61.1 million), claiming he lost three-quarters of his personal fortune through bad advice.
The 67-year-old artist alleges his money was whittled away on risky loans and stakes in little-known companies that failed, Fairfax reported today.
Done is renowned for his colourful depictions of Australian life, images licensed for use on merchandise and particularly popular with overseas tourists.
In a case due to have its first preliminary hearing today, he claims that had financial advisers invested as he said between 2001 and 2005, he and his wife Judith would have a trust fund worth A$61.5 million.
Instead he has been left with just A$8 million.
In documents filed with the Federal Court, Done argues that he believed his money was in safe hands with experienced managers at leading banks, Fairfax reported.
But he later found that instead of his money being invested in companies with histories of healthy returns, it had been sunk into dozens of ultimately unsuccessful small investments.
They included stakes in two soccer teams, a beauty spa and an obscure Maltese biotechnology company.
Many of the shares are now worthless and various unauthorised loans to individuals can not be recovered, Done alleges.
He claims he specified that only 20 per cent of his money was to be put into speculative ventures.
Done alleges he was misled by false accounting entries and that he paid nearly A$2 million in fees over six years.
- AAP
