Zip Internet's ownership tangle tests liquidator

By RICHARD PAMATATAU

The liquidator for web kiosk company Zip Internet confirms there is a "room full of kiosks" at Zip's Auckland premises, but is still to unravel a tangled web of ownership.

"We have still to determine who owns them," said McDonald Vague liquidator John Whitfield.

Zip went into liquidation last week, leaving a queue of angry investors out of pocket to the tune of $1.5 million and estimated total debts of about $2 million.

Mengal Singh, the lawyer administering the estate of the late Kenn Rangi, director of the defunct internet kiosk company, said he was unravelling the Zip shareholding. He said it was possible the shareholding belonged to a family trust, but he was still to find out if any ownership had been transferred.

According to the Companies Office, Rangi is still listed as a shareholder in a slew of companies related to Zip.

For two years, Zip Internet has been selling investors kiosks placed in shopping malls. Investors thought they owned them exclusively, but later learned that many kiosks were owned by several people.

The investors expected more than $4000 a month in advertising revenue from click-through buttons on their kiosk's touch screens and advertising panels.

The kiosk at St Lukes shopping centre, in Auckland, for example, was apparently "sold" to seven investors according to material circulated at their recently formed support group.

Detective Ian Tuke, of the Police Fraud Squad, said a complaint laid with him was still being assessed.

A source told the Herald that as advertising revenue failed to eventuate, the money secured from "new" kiosk sales was paid to existing owners as "revenue".