Phoenix Forex's creditor claims top $2 million

Mark Brewer was attending a birthday function in Milford yesterday.

Creditors are now claiming $2 million from a company which sold controversial currency trading software.

This is up from the $300,000 which creditors were claiming last year.

Phoenix Forex was the New Zealand distributor of the OakFX foreign exchange trading system, which customers paid up to $25,000 to access.

In August last year the FMA warned the public about doing business with the Auckland-based company and the regulator said Phoenix Forex was misrepresenting the profitability of, and risks associated with, its trading system.

The company was put into liquidation last October, with an initial report showing creditors claiming $300,000.

The second report released today by liquidator Jared Booth shows creditors are now claiming $2 million from the firm.

Inland Revenue says it is owed $1.44 million from the firm while former clients are claiming $448,774. Trade creditors were claiming $124,148, the report said.

Booth told the Herald this afternoon that the liquidators, in turn, are claiming $402,401 from a related-company, Restaurant Limited, which is also in liquidation and operated the Brownstone Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge on Auckland's Ponsonby Rd.

One of Restaurant Limited's shareholders, Phoenix Group Ventures, is also the owner of Phoenix Forex.

Restaurant Limited's liquidators say the company is owed $109,118 by Phoenix Group Ventures for food and drink.

Phoenix Forex and Phoenix Group Ventures are directed by Kendall Twidgen, who is in her mid-twenties. Last year when the FMA issued its warning about OakFX she was travelling overseas with twice-bankrupted businesssman Mark Brewer, who was employed at Phoenix Forex as a senior salesperson.