Dear Mr Shipton, Australian Securities and Investment Commission
I’m sure you’ve received the letters from Denise Brailey, Re - The Collapse of the STERLING LIFE GROUP – A Failure of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. It is important for us individuals that were highly affected by this, to also share with you the dramatic and life changing effects that this has had on each of us, who entered into these Financial Companies in good faith and believing it was a sound and growing investment.
The catastrohic effects on me and my family have been unbearable.
Firstly, this investment I made came from money borrowed from my family and their retirement fund. So the guilt, shame and embarrassment I have experienced with this long duration fiasco has been too stressful for words.
The loss of my retirement fund of over $100,000 has created scarring emotional pain and fears for my future and the present.
I have been forced to increase the amount of Work I am doing, so I can pay back some money to my family, and now with a bleak financial future, I will be forced to work harder and longer until the Pension.
Sterling First never delivered on any of their promises and claims.
They manipulated every scenario to their best outcome and not for us investors who whole-heartedly wanted to be part of growing their business and positively impacting lives.
They kept changing Company names, and types of Shares, and also their quantities. It was very confusing and hard to keep up with.
They also promised Dividends for years, and withheld them for as long as possible. Then once they did start paying some, they abruptly cancelled dividend payments and gave some suspect excuse why they were not going to pay the last one which had already matured the full 3 month term. They reneged on this payment for no reason and left us all hanging, receiving nothing, when we had the expectation of a dividend to pay something important in our lives. So suddenly I was left in a situation that I had to borrow this money from a family member.
When I asked repeated times to sell, which they assured we could do anytime, they kept saying it wasn’t possible until XYZ happened. There was always an excuse. Waiting for a company to Merge, waiting for the Prospectus, waiting for a General meeting, always waiting for something else. Even when they gave me a form to fill out for the number of shares I’d like to sell, they received this form and promptly did nothing with it. I tried many times to remove money from them, but they would never let me do it, or others.
They would just do a roll over into some other nonsense. Denise said: Just as Westpoint used to do. You Mr Shipton were supposed to be the corporate policeman and you have proven to be a dismal failure or worse.
I have recently become more aware of all the legal but highly unethical ways crooked business men like the ones in Sterling can manipulate businesses and monies to their advantage, and not be accountable or responsible for all those promises and contracts they destroy along the way, in order for their own monetary gains. This is ghastly behaviour and shouldn’t be allowed to wrought the system this easy.
Please make a stand and correct this. You had many chances and turned a blind eye. This is not acceptable behaviour for any Australian Business, let alone a governing body like yourselves. You are meant to be working to protect us as one of your main agendas.
Put systems in place so that this behaviour is stopped now and so won’t negatively impact so many honest hard working Australian citizens in the future.
Thank you
Yours Sincerely,