charges

BEFORE things went bad, Neil Leggett was chief executive officer of biotechnology company Agenix and on a pay package clearing $580,000 a year.

He flew to Shanghai to sign deals and London to give presentations.

He owned a $130,000 Mustang Cruiser boat and his company received government grants.

It can today be revealed he has also been charged with defrauding $5.3 million from the publicly listed entity.

The charge carries a maximum jail term under Queensland law of 12 years if he is convicted.

Mr Leggett declined to comment on the charges.

"I don't have a lawyer at this point," he said.

Agenix has had big aims for selling drugs in China and developing a ThromboView technology for detecting blood clots -like those that endanger passengers on long jet flights.

The company, which spun out of the Queensland University of Technology in 1983, notched up a $1.1 million grant in 2004 and was part of an antibody research consortium which received a separate grant in 2007.

Its last accounts recorded 20 staff in Australia and 134 in China.

It has attracted investors from around the world and, as at December 2007, had issued capital of $66 million and accumulated losses of $49 million.

But its share price has dawdled and ThromboView and the Chinese drug project have suffered setbacks.

Its accounts for the full year to June are yet to be released as it resolves a dispute in China.

Mr Leggett, 54, took up the role as Agenix's chief financial officer in 2003 and became CEO in December 2005.

He has an MBA and was an accountant for more than 25 years.

He resigned in December 2007.

He stayed on as company secretary until May last year, selling two million shares for $320,000 in that time.

In September last year, Agenix announced to the market it was pursuing a civil action in Victoria against Mr Leggett over allegedly "improper transactions".

Two days before Christmas, police charged Mr Leggett and he was bailed after appearing in court.

The former CEO has been forced to surrender his passport.

The Queensland charges allege that between January 2006 and July 2008, Mr Leggett "dishonestly induced Agenix to deliver diverse sums of money" to a private company.

Court documents allege Mr Leggett received $5.3 million illegally.

Mr Leggett filed for bankruptcy in September last year claiming a freeze-order by Agenix had limited his funds.

Bankruptcy documents lodged with the Insolvency and Trustee Service Australia reveal Mr Leggett had an interest in a BMW 318i and a Honda Accord.

He also listed the sale of a Mustang Cruiser boat for $130,000 in August.

His address was then given as Sanctuary Cove - a home he did not own but which included four bedrooms, a swimming pool and water frontage.

A plan to buy land had fallen apart because he could not settle and the deposit was lost, he claims in the bankruptcy documents.

He is due to reappear in court in March.