This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE Federal Court has appointed liquidators to the Macro Group Companies, which were promoted by property spruiker Jamie McIntyre, who enticed investors with the tagline ‘Do you know how to buy Australian property, no money down?’.
The Federal Court in Perth has appointed KPMG’s Hayden White and Matthew Woods as joint and several provisional liquidators of Macro Realty Developments Pty Ltd, Macro Realty Developments AFSL Pty Ltd, Macro All State Investments and Securities Ltd, Pilbara Property Developments Pty Ltd, Macro Realty Pty Ltd, and 511 GTN Pty Ltd.
The companies are linked to West Australian-based property developer Desiree Veronica Macpherson. In August last year, the Federal Court ordered Macpherson surrender her passport to prevent her from leaving the country.
The provisional liquidator appointment is part of ASIC’s ongoing investigation into a number of land developments in the mining region of Pilbara, one in particular known as “The Newman Estate”.
The appointments comes after ASIC obtained orders against Macro Realty Development and against companies associated with Jamie McIntyre in March last year, banning McIntyre’s 21 Century from promoting and marketing the investment proposal at The Newman Estate.
The investment proposal was promoted using the tagline ‘Do you know how to buy Australian property, no money down?’, involved investors becoming a director and shareholder of Macro Realty by acquiring the properties from Macro through this company.
In return, they would receive a director’s fee but investors have to agree that Macro would be the sole decision maker for the company.
When contacted by Australian Property Journal, ASIC could not confirm or deny whether McIntyre is still associated with the companies following the Federal Court decision in March last year.
“We are unable to comment on whether Mr McIntyre is still associated with the relevant companies in some capacity,” an ASIC spokesperson said.
APJ contacted the liquidators KPMG, however they were unable to comment.
McIntyre’s 21 Century was also contacted for comment but McIntyre could not be reached.
ASIC said in a statement that “the appointment of provisional liquidators was based on a number of concerns, including that the companies had been involved in multiple contraventions of the corporations legislation and are not complying with their obligations under that legislation, were not being properly managed and are suspected to be insolvent.
Yesterday Justice Barker agreed with the corporate regulator and in his orders, ask the provisional liquidators to provide to the court within 45 days a report which includes the identification of the assets and liabilities of each of the companies; an opinion as to the solvency of each of the companies; the likely return to creditors and any other information necessary to enable the financial position of the companies to be assessed; and any suspected contravention of the Corporations Act 2001 by any of the companies or their directors/officers.
ASIC’s investigation is ongoing.
Australian Property Journal
