KEY POINTS:
Blue Chip investors left creditors' meetings yesterday upset and still none the wiser about how they will get their money back.
"There was an awful lot of maybes and might-bes and possiblys," said maintenance fitter Richard Elsley, 53. "But nothing definitive."
Mr Elsley said he had "a couple of hundred thousand" tied up in the business after investing in two apartments, only one of which had been built.
"It has put me back a decade - it's stolen from my children.
"[We got involved] with the intention of making our retirement but also being able to leave a legacy to our kids.
"They've taken away a big dollop of that."
Mr Elsley is one of about 3000 Blue Chip creditors who have lost a combined total of more than $70 million.
Two sessions of creditors' meetings were held in Auckland yesterday, but Blue Chip co-founder Mark Bryers failed to appear - an offence under the Companies Act.
There was also confusion after the liquidator of the 20 failed Blue Chip-related companies, Jeff Meltzer, said he had secured Government funding for an investigation into the group.
He told the hundreds of gathered investors that he had met Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel last week and the funding had been confirmed.
But a spokeswoman for Ms Dalziel's office later said the liquidators had applied to a special fund - available to assist with liquidations with a high degree of public interest - but as far as she was aware the application was still under consideration.
West Auckland mother of two Carolyn Collingwood, 46, said there was still a huge question mark over $100,000 she and husband, Tony, put in.
She had hoped to be told yesterday where the deposit money was but came away still seeking answers. "I feel lost."
A Bay of Plenty pensioner said he was at a loss how to make mortgage repayments of $532,000, after agreeing to use equity from his previously mortgage-free home.
"Quite honestly, I don't know how I'm going to pay it," said the 66-year-old man, dubbed Big Sam of Maketu.
Another man, who with his wife had more than $1 million tied up in the company, called for Government aid.
"It's a major catastrophe," said the man. "If it was an eruption, an earthquake or a fire that affected this many people as Blue Chip has affected, there would be some aid come to us."
