RUBICON founder Gordon Fell claims he has no idea how much he has raked in from the now crumbling $870 million empire
"I haven't added it up," he says.
Mr Fell also said investors seeking high returns were partly to blame for Rubicon's failure and that lending banks were "all equally enthusiastic about enjoying the good times while the sun was shining".
Mr Fell has pocketed well over $50 million in bonuses, fees and from selling parts of Rubicon to the now-failed Allco Finance Group.
"Rubicon was a private company ... you have no more right to ask me that question than I have to ask you questions about your financial affairs," Mr Fell said.
Through Rubicon, Mr Fell raised $870 million from investors. That money was placed in three listed property trusts which bought properties in the US, Japan and Europe.
Those investments are now worth just $15.5 million.
Rubicon Holdings was privately owned by Mr Fell (44 per cent), Allco founder David Coe (20 per cent), Rubicon executive director Matthew Cooper (15 per cent) and about 20 per cent by Allco.
Rubicon Holdings was sold to Allco -- which crippled the latter -- in December.
Mr Fell, who lives with his wife in a Sydney harbourfront mansion they bought for $28.7million in August 2007, received an upfront cash payment of about $28 million in the transaction. But some of the biggest gains he received are understood to have been via management fees -- hundreds of millions of dollars -- the trusts paid to Rubicon Holdings.
In 2006 alone, Rubicon Holdings received $120 million in management fees.
Mr Fell said the costs of running Rubicon Holdings -- such as staff costs -- were taken out of those fees, but would not disclose how much he or the other owners got.
"If I gave it to you it's just giving it away, right?" Mr Fell said when asked to quantify those payments. "So there is no point in doing that."
Shares in the Rubicon US, Japan and Europe trusts, issued at or above $1, were trading at between 0.5c and 2c when suspended last week.
Those property trusts failed because private companies connected to Mr Fell's Rubicon Holdings sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of high-risk mortgage loans into them in late 2006. In less than a year the mortgage loan market collapsed and the value of the trusts followed.
Mr Fell said the high-risk loans had been sold into the trusts to gain higher returns that shareholders sought.
"There was no shortage of banks seeking to provide credit and no shortage of providers of equity looking to receive leveraged returns," Mr Fell said.
On Friday, Rubicon Holdings was placed in administration by NAB, which is owed $20million by Rubicon Holdings.
The future of the Rubicon property trusts is uncertain.
The Rubicon arms which manage the funds are still technically owned by parts of Rubicon not sold to Allco.
But the staff who manage the funds are employed by Allco and are expected to be made redundant by Allco's receivers in coming days.
