Pirate funds boss listed as $200K priority creditor, page-4

FromAFR.

Stuart McAuliffe, the pirate-obsessed fund manager whose investment outfits are battling multiple fires, is listed as being owed more than $200,000 as a priority creditor in one of his failed entities. The amount was listed as backpay among creditors of JB Financial Group, which had receivers appointed last month and administrators on Wednesday.
Stuart McAuliffe, the brains behind JB Financial Group. Darren PatemanThe appointment of administrators Marcus Ayers and Brett Lord of EY is the latest in a string of bleak news surrounding entities in the funds management group established by Mr McAuliffe, into which investors have ploughed more than $50 million. Even his ASX-listed Henry Morgan fund and its NSX-listed investment management firm, John Bridgeman, both of which are suspended on their exchanges, postponed annual general meetings slated for next week. No reason was given. Mr McAuliffe is managing director of both those entities, based in Brisbane’s Eagle Street, and he named them after pirates who died hundreds of years ago. He is a former Bond University academic who based his investment strategies on the military campaigns of Julius Caesar and George Patton.

Mr McAuliffe was also chief executive of the failed JB Financial, and it was 69 per cent owned by a string of entities linked to him including that investment management firm, according to a Takeovers Panel ruling released last month.JB Financial is still lawfully operating and has stakes in assets including a currency exchange and investigator service. Receivers were appointed over a $7 million loan from Partners for Growth (PFG) that granted security over JB Financial’s assets.RELATEDNew directors probe alterations to pirate loan dealsOne of the receivers, Joseph Hayes of Wexted Advisors, has filed documents this month with regulators, in which JB Financial director Sam Elderfield lists creditors and debtors. Creditors, excluding PFG, are listed as owed nearly $7.6 million.That includes more than $400,000 in backpay to employees such as Mr McAuliffe, listed as being owed $227,000 including $69,000 in holiday pay, and Mr Elderfield, $81,000. Employees are listed as priority creditors.Among those caught up in the JB Financial turmoil include investors in the Benjamin Hornigold fund. Mr McAuliffe had run that fund but resigned in June in the face of a shareholder rebellion.The fund is owed almost $3.5 million in loans to JB Financial made before Mr McAuliffe’s resignation, and it says these amounts are in default and immediately repayable.JB Financial also owns a currency exchange that has almost $7.4 million in banknotes and interest owed to the fund.The Takeovers Panel ruling found unacceptable circumstances existed in the placement of banknotes with the currency exchange, but a dispute has now emerged with the lender PFG saying it holds a fixed charge over those notes.JB Financial also lists more than $60 million in assets and money owed to it, with large chunks coming from related-party entities. The value of its holding in the investigation and mercantile business was an estimated $22 million and the currency exchange at $14.9 million, for example.JB Financial says loans owed to it include loans to investment management firm John Bridgeman and an associated restaurant business.Mr McAuliffe, who gives his address at a home in Brisbane’s leafy westside suburb of Chelmer, has not answered queries.