At any rate, ASIC company records, as distinct from the licence register, show that Howard passed control of Alt-FX to fellow director, Kieran Honour, last November, who then shifted its official digs to his home in suburban Prahran before giving it a shingle in Collins Street.
Honour is named on Republica Capital's website as its chairman, so it was presumably a pretty simple matter, as the owner of Alt-FX, to authorise Republica to be its representative. Beauchamp shares the same Collins Street address as Alt-FX, and its director Trent McKendrick also sits on the board of Alt-FX.
The last time Alt-FX lodged a set of accounts with ASIC was in July 2010 - and they were already more than 12 months old. Honour signed them, with banker Albert Verdicchio, and they showed the company had a grand turnover of less than $60,000 and net assets of less than $75,000.
They also claimed that the company's principal activity was acting as investment adviser to Alt-FX SPC, based in the Cayman Islands - which is interesting because Insider has seen records that say the Cayman company was struck off in October 2009. Presumably Alt-FX must have found something else to do so its directors could make the statement that nothing had happened since the end of the financial year that would significantly affect operations.
Last week, Honour, as shareholder/director, filed a copy of a letter sent to himself as company secretary to convene a meeting to have Alt-FX's auditor, Peter White, removed. The letter was dated April 20, which brings a new meaning to snail mail.
Insider wonders just what use ASIC's register of licence holders is if Alt-FX is an example of how outdated the information can be.
How many people are giving their hard-earned money over to licence holders on the naive assumption that those operating under a licence have been vetted by ASIC within living memory?
MDV Price at posting:
0.3¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
