Ross investors split into rival camps

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 investors in David Ross' ponzi scheme appear to have split into rival camps.

Following Ross Asset Management's $115 million collapse in 2012, its liquidators have signalled they may try claw back funds from those who got more out of the business than they put in.

RAM's liquidators have written to 23 investors notifying them that they could face claw back action after they won a test case, in which Wellington investor Hamish McIntosh was ordered to pay $454,000 of "fictitious profits" he received from RAM.

McIntosh has since appealed the judgment and his challenge is understood to be due in court next month.

The RAM investors group's Bruce Tichbon, who has served as an unofficial spokesman for Ross' out-of-pocket clients, circulated an anonymous letter over the weekend purporting to be from a new "RAM Clawback group".

This group sought to find out the identity of the 23 investors facing claw back so they can band together.

"It's vital we establish communication with the 23 Investors to ensure they are aware of how important it is they group together to fight these unfair actions," the anonymous RAM Clawback letter said.

Tichbon said the rival group appears to represent those who made money from the "RAM fraud" and were keen to protect their position.

"Unlike the RAM Investors Group which aims to be open and transparent in the interests of justice, this supposedly counter group seems to operate in secret...the battle is heating up into potentially a very destructive and expensive fight between the parties who have either lost money, those who have made money, and the liquidator. We mostly blame NZs unworkable commercial law for this mess," Tichbon said.

Ross was jailed in 2013 for 10 years and 10 months - the lengthiest sentence ever handed down in a Serious Fraud Office case.