Ponzi liquidators net $446k from settled claims

David Ross was sentenced in 2013 to 10 years, 10 months' jail for an elaborate Ponzi scheme spanning 12 years in which an estimated $115.5 million of investments was lost. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The liquidators of David Ross' Ponzi scheme have netted $446,000 after settling with three investors who got money out of the Wellington fraudster's money-go-round before it collapsed.

They have also launched legal action another two investors who refused to enter into "standstill" agreements with them.

These agreements, according to John Fisk, mean he and co-liquidator David Bridgman won't launch clawback proceedings before a test case is decided if the investors agree not to challenge any action as time-barred.

As of last week 28 investors had agreed to the standstill.

"Three investors wished to avoid any ongoing risk of litigation and settlements have been agreed with them with a combined value of $446,00, of which $171,000 had been received by [16 December]," Fisk said in his latest liquidators' report published today.

Fisk said last year that nearly 200 investors who got about $30 million of "fictitious profits" out of Ross' Ponzi scheme could face claims to claw that money back.

Whether or not those claims proceed could depend on the outcome of a test case involving Wellington lawyer Hamish McIntosh, which the Court of Appeal has yet to rule on.

McIntosh borrowed $500,000 from Westpac to put into Ross' business in 2007.

His investment had purportedly grown to $954,000 when he closed his portfolio four and a half years later and the liquidators of Ross' since-collapsed business went to the High Court to recover the funds.

While McIntosh had a defence to the liquidators' claim for the $500,000 original investment, the lawyer was ordered to pay back the $454,000 of "fictitious profits" when the case was in the High Court.

Both the liquidators and McIntosh appealed the decision.

Ross Asset Management collapsed in November 2012, around the time it was raided by the Financial Markets Authority.

It was later revealed Ross was running a Ponzi scheme and he was jailed for 10 years and 10 months.