The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has moved to stop five former directors of Australian Property Custodian Holdings (APCH) from managing corporations.
APCH is the responsible entity of the Prime Retirement Aged Care Property Trust (Prime Trust) – a managed investment scheme that owns retirement villages in Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
ASIC has started penalty proceedings and alleges the cohort failed to act in the best interests of Prime Trust members by changing the Prime Trust constitution to provide for a fee to be paid to APCH in the event units in the Prime Trust were listed on the stock exchange.
The alleged then directed APCH to pay a listing fee of approximately $33 million out of scheme assets which were paid to entities associated with William Lionel Lewski – a former director and company secretary and one of the defendants in the case.
Former APCH directors Mark Frederick Butler, Peter Clarke and Kim Jacques, and former non-executive director Michael Richard Lewis Wooldridge are the remaining defendants in the case.
The hearing begins in September and ASIC will ask the court to impose pecuniary penalties and seek a declaration confirming that APCH breached its duties under the Corporation Act 2011.
Creditors voted to place the company into liquidation in late 2011 after voluntary administrators were appointed to APCH in October 2010.
One of the receivers and managers of APCH is leading proceedings commenced by the liquidators relating to the $33 million listing fee paid to entities associated with Lewski.
ASIC said it was monitoring the proceedings which were taking place in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Approximately 9,700 investors contributed over $500 million to the Prime Trust.
