KEY POINTS:
Sir Bob Jones is trying to bankrupt one of the co-founders of Blue Chip, the company which has left 3000 Kiwi investors $80 million out of pocket.
Sir Bob is going after a $395,000 debt he claims Blue Chip owes for space leased in his Auckland office tower block, Qantas House, leases for which co-founder Bob Bangerter signed personal guarantees.
The office of Blue Chip boss Mark Bryers on level 20 is now gutted, but earlier this year desperate Blue Chip investors found they could not get into the offices after the elevator access was blocked.
As the Serious Fraud Office and Companies Office continue what are likely to be lengthy investigations into the failed property investment company, Sir Bob is not waiting for an outcome. This week his company Robt Jones Holdings (RJH) will seek summary judgment for an alleged $395,000 debt against Bangerter, and he is determined to follow the process through to bankruptcy.
Bryers, too, is in the firing line as a result of Blue Chip, with one summary judgment entered against him personally and another pending. But so far no one has yet moved to bankrupt Bryers, who is now in Sydney selling property investment.
Yesterday, through the Herald on Sunday, 72-year-old Bangerter pleaded for leniency, saying Blue Chip boss Bryers had duped him and left him holding the burden of the debt.
He has not heard from Bryers and had received no financial help to cover the debt.
Bangerter, who has been bankrupted before, said he had not received an income from Blue Chip since January and that he and his partner Maree Aitkenhead had been "selling assets" to survive.
The couple and their friends and family were owed money from Blue Chip investment properties which had gone wrong.
Their $3 million Remuera home, which they bought late last year and has finance owing on it, was for sale with three agents.
The couple said they would never have bought the house if they had any idea Blue Chip was going to fold.
Bangerter said he was shocked to realise the personal guarantees were still in place.
The first he knew of it was when RJH's lawyers served a document on him last month. He wants the chance to talk to Sir Bob, if only to put his side and clear his name.
But yesterday Sir Bob said the summary judgment would go ahead.
"The only reason we are doing it is to put him [Bangerter] out of action so that will delay him from doing this sort of thing again," Sir Bob said.
"These people, I think what they've done to those old people is appalling."
RJH director Greg Loveridge, whose works from level 21 of Qantas House, one floor above Bryers' old office, said he became suspicious of Blue Chip last year when the company got behind in payments. At one stage a $70,000 rates bill was owing.
"We don't let unpaid bills go unpaid," Loveridge said.
When Blue Chip's financial troubles became public, the company asked RJH to lock off their floors. Earlier this year, a large group of distressed Blue Chip clients appeared in RJH's offices, pleading for access to the offices, Loveridge said.
In March, Blue Chip stopped paying rent on levels 20 and 17. RJH followed "the legal process" and eventually locked out Blue Chip staff.
Bryers sent Loveridge an email from Sydney asking why the doors had been locked and assuring him $100,000 would arrive the next day. The money never arrived.
The lease for space on level 12 was still being paid by ASX-listed Northern Crest Investments, previously Blue Chip Financial Solutions, Loveridge said. Bryers is selling property in Australia under a company called Barkley Walsh, a subsidiary of Northern Crest.
Bangerter denies he is rich and says any wealth he has was accumulated before he met Bryers. He was only paid an annual salary by Blue Chip. He is angry he has been left in the firing line. He signed the personal guarantees for leases on three of the floors six years ago. It suited Bryers to do it that way because of his personal financial situation, Bangerter said.
"At the time that I signed personal guarantees. It never entered my head that Mark Bryers would dump me with it."
Attempts to contact Bryers in Australia were unsuccessful.
