Ross Asset Management investor McIntosh allowed to appeal to Supreme Court

Thursday 26th May 2016

The Supreme Court has granted former Ross Asset Management investor Hamish McIntosh leave to appeal the Court of Appeal's ruling that he could keep the $500,000 he managed to extract from the Ponzi scheme before its failure, but not the fictitious profits he earned.

In March, the Court of Appeal dismissed McIntosh's bid to hold on to the $454,000 return he received when he withdrew almost $1 million from RAM before it collapsed, which he claimed he was entitled to keep because without it, he wouldn't have pursued a speculative property investment.

The judges rejected McIntosh's position, calling it "factually untenable for a number of reasons", including that he was already interested in purchasing the leaky home before he started withdrawing funds from RAM.

Today, the Supreme Court gave McIntosh leave to appeal that ruling. RAM liquidators John Fisk and David Bridgman of PwC sued McIntosh as a test case and have said they would pursue other investors who managed to pull funds out. Remaining investors are expected to get back just 3 cents in the dollar.

The Supreme Court also granted the liquidators permission to cross-appeal the ruling letting McIntosh keep the principal. The liquidators had appealed this in the Court of Appeal, but that was rejected.

Wellington-based David Ross built up a private investment service by word of mouth, producing regular reports for shareholders indicating healthy but fictitious returns. Between June 2000 and September 2012, Ross reported false profits of $351 million from fictitious securities trading as part of a fraud that was the largest single such crime committed by an individual in New Zealand.

Ross is currently serving 10 years and 10 months in jail for the fraud.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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