Article in The Australian, page-5

Quintis ex-CEO Wilson denies secret offshore account claim

Former Qunitis chief executive Frank Wilson.

• BEN BUTLER
• The Australian
• 12:00AM October 30, 2017

Former Quintis chief executive Frank Wilson tried to set up a secret offshore account worth tens of millions of dollars to trade in the embattled sandalwood company’s shares, a court was told.

Mr Wilson denied the allegation, which was made during US litigation with a margin lender that has since been settled.

The revelation comes amid continuing debt woes for Quintis, formerly known as TFS, which has been under pressure since short-sellers Glaucus Research hammered its share price with a scathing report in late March.

An agreement under which lenders dominated by investment giant BlackRock agreed not to take action against Quintis for breaching its borrowing conditions expired on Friday, but it is believed likely an extension will be announced this morning.

Details of the at-times torrid relationship between Mr Wilson and British Virgin Islands-registered lender Emerging Markets Intrinsic, or EMI, are contained in a lawsuit filed by Mr Wilson in US Federal Court earlier this year. In court documents, Mr Wilson said he entered a margin loan agreement with EMI in 2015 and started discussions about a second deal in October last year.

He accused EMI and two of its executives, Eric Maass and Bulent Toro, of “a series of intentional, malicious, and premeditated actions”, defrauding him of $32 million worth of Quintis shares which they then wrongfully treated “as collateral for a sham loan transaction for their own benefit and to enrich themselves”.

Mr Wilson accused Mr Maas of threatening his business adviser Anthony Murphy. He said Mr Murphy’s company, Lucerne Australia, put his signature on a loan agreement without his permission and he never saw a cent of the $53m EMI agreed to lend to him.

In response, EMI said Mr Wilson breached the terms of the second loan and it “does not appear” he disclosed the initial margin loan to the ASX.

EMI said Mr Wilson wanted “a unique feature” for the second loan. “Some of the loan proceeds would be dispensed in cash, but tens of millions of dollars would be parked in an offshore ‘trading account’ that could be used by Wilson (though not in his name) to trade exclusively in TFS stock,” EMI said. Mr Wilson told The Australian: “The claims made by EMI in that respect were entirely refuted, but we have moved on and settled the case.”