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Yes Plumbob

It would be nice to see some pro active action on this front too by 'certain people' for PIF investors( below). before all the " elderly "investors pass into oblivion . The PIFI once did a statistical analysis of the average age of PIF investors and from memory it was well into the Seventies. That is why we all ways state from day one that controlled careful sale of the assets over time was the only sensible option .

I read an interesting article in New Scientist recently on ageing . WE basically get just 20.000 Mesenchyle stem cells in the bone marrow from birth . These stem cells migrate from the bone into the blood to do all the repair work -transcription errors etc that cause cancer and other deceases . At 65 we only have 2000 of these patch-up cells and that reduces dramatically thereafter. Hence that is why the 65 to 80 age is the death or serious illness zone . I wonder how many PIF investors are actually alive or still in good health after our long drawn out saga .???


LIQUIDATORS for failed financial and hotels investment group MFS have widened their pursuit of US-based investment vehicle Fortress Investment Group, filing a $210 million claim against the company and several of its managing directors in the New York Supreme Court.

The New York-based Fortress Investment Group and three of its managing directors are being accused of siphoning off at least $210m from MFS -- now called Octaviar -- via its Drawbridge hedge fund, in proceeds liquidators claim were rightly owed to the company, just before its collapse.

The Australian understands the total claim by Octaviar liquidators Katherine Barnet and William Fletcher against Fortress is close to $300m with interest included.

They allege Fortress ensured a payment of about $200m from the former directors of Octaviar, including to a Fortress-managed, Cayman Islands-based hedge fund, just before the Gold Coast-based company collapsed in February 2008.

The repayments made by MFS to Fortress and its managed fund between February and December 2008 were funded through the sale of its hospitality arm, Stella, to the CVC Group the same year.

Liquidators alleged the funds should have been paid to Octaviar and the failure to do so precipitated in the company's collapse.

"The defendants' wrongful conduct resulted in Fortress grabbing the Stella sale proceeds before they could be remitted to OA at a time when OA was insolvent (or was rendered insolvent as a result of the defendants' actions) and was unable to satisfy its obligations to creditors," the complaint filed in the New York Supreme Court states. "Consequently, OA was placed into voluntary administration and, subsequently, liquidation by the Australian Court."

Ms Barnet has declined to comment, while Fortress could not be reached for comment.

Ten thousand investors, mostly elderly, lost about $700m when the MFS-founded Premium Income Fund collapsed in the global financial crisis, with Octaviar now owing a total of $2.1 billion to creditors.

Once listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, Octaviar formally employed up to 300 people with a network of hotels worldwide, as well as offering funds management and financial services to investors.

Fortress Investment Group and two of its US and Cayman Island funds have been named as defendants in the case, as well as three managing directors of Fortress.

The managing directors named as defendants are Glenn Cummins, Constantine Dakolias and Marc Furstein.

Richard Haass, senior US diplomat and president of the Council of Foreign Relations, also sits on the Fortress board of directors but is not named as a defendant.

The claim was filed in the New York Supreme Court on February 28, with a summons issued to the three directors last week.

The claim mirrors an Australian lawsuit against Fortress and Octaviar directors in the Queensland Supreme Court for $210m, but liquidators say it was necessary to pursue Fortress in the US as it was where the buck stopped.

"Although these financing arrangements were entered into by Fortress and certain members of the Octaviar Group (but, notably, not OA), the proverbial buck started and stopped with the defendants in New York," the complaint states