Hon. Lisa Harvey MP
Leader of State Opposition of Western Australia
Dear Mrs Harvey
I am emailing you on behalf of the victims, my father is one of these victims, of this heinous crime known as Sterling First, the perpetrators of whom were past known criminals from previous collapses (Westpoint) where millions of dollars from everyday Australian investors disappeared.
It seems that the government body, ASIC, who are supposed to be monitoring illegal financial practices, are completely incompetent and allowed these criminals to register and set up the subsequent scheme under the guise of ‘looking after retirees’ interests’.
The following is a quote from Sterling First’s Information Memorandum (IM) 2017:
“The Company believes its key strengths include:
• Exposure to secular growth in older Australians’ demand for affordable housing
• Innovative and proven solution to retirement living within the wider community
• Recurring and reliable cash flow from property and funds management operations
• Scalable throughout Australia and potentially internationally
• Insulated from cyclical economic and equity market movements
• Alignment of shareholders and directors’ interests. Executive Management and Directors own 56% of issued share capital
• Dedicated and experienced team with demonstrated sector performance”
The sales agent who signed up my father, and whom my father considered a ‘friend’, is interestingly mentioned in the Old Hansard documents relating back to this.
http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/hansard/hans35.nsf/0/05b4919ef623be8a48256831000610e9?OpenDocument (mentioned right at the bottom of this page)
I am sure you are well aware of this current situation now as these retirees’ have lost pretty much all their life savings and are now facing eviction from the properties they took a 40-year lease out on, thanks to the pathetic lack of integrity on the part of ASIC. Under Denise Brailey’s guidance, we are now putting this negligence on ASIC’s part out into the public arena and are pushing for a Royal Commission into ASIC and its lack of action on this and many previous failings of companies where people have lost monumental amounts of money, yet these same directors are able to set up another set of companies to repeat their criminal offences over again.
Denise has estimated that an amount of $36 million would cover the compensation for this particular situation and that it should be placed in a legal trust and distributed accordingly to each affected victim. As you are aware, some of these elderly retirees are in poor health, some with terminal illness with not long to live, and one has already passed away in the last week or so. A speedy compensation would alleviate much of the stress that these people are now enduring.
I have attached a letter that I have written and sent to the Prime Minister, Mr Scott Morrison, last week. As the majority of these victims are West Australians, however there are others in Victoria and Queensland who are also affected, I am now asking in the strongest terms that something be done about urgent compensation, a Royal Commission into ASIC, plus that the criminals who were allowed to set up the group of companies under the Sterling First banner be brought to justice and be made to pay for their crimes. I hope you will read the letter in its entirety and am asking if you can have compassion on these people and emphasise the URGENCY of the need to take action on this matter.
To date, our group has sent numerous letters to Mr James Shipton, Mr Josh Frydenberg as well as Mr Scott Morrison – as yet, no-one has had any reply. I am aware that there is a ‘supposed’ internal ASIC investigation however will this just be a little slap on the wrist and ‘continue on James’?
I expect that there will be no finger-pointing on this issue, as it is now clearly being uncovered that this lack of action and lack of diligence, failure of ASIC to protect the Australian consumer has occurred over a number of years whereby monthly meetings occurred between the top brass in ASIC met with government MP’s.
ASIC need to be made accountable and responsible for their lack of action for not only this situation, but past failures as well!
I appreciate any assistance and support or influence that you may be able to contribute to this matter. I will also be championing other MP’s on both sides of politics so we can get this resolved URGENTLY. It is a desperate situation for the elderly tight now and was highly preventable.
Many thanks