Both Timbercorp and Great Southern MIS investors ran extensive organised and co-ordinated class action litigation processes through the Federal Court and lost their cases comprehensively. The only groups to see a financial return were the legal firms, barristers and litigation funder (IMF) that ran the cases for the plaintiffs.
The growers should rightly be worried that if Quintis goes the way of failed MIS managers Great Southern and Timbercorp, not only would they lose their interest in the trees but they would be liable to repay the loans taken out with Quintis and other lenders to fund the investments.
The Great Southern class action settlement included a term by which group members acknowledged and admitted that loans taken out with independent financiers to finance investments in Great Southern managed investment schemes were valid and enforceable.