It might sound like an unlikely looking floor, however a coastal bowling membership filled with cash-strapped seniors was the proper place for Greywolf to seek out seed buyers.
The pensioners there have been inexperienced with the inventory market and financially susceptible, anxious to make sure consolation and security in previous age.
Mates Trevor Chapman, Noel Higgs and Tom Cain by no means suspected their new bowling mate was on the prowl.
“He was such a gentleman, and quiet,” 82-year-old Trevor says. “He was very light, an English gentleman.”
After exhibiting up one “thirsty Thursday”, the well-presented “govt sort” labored shortly, promoting Trevor the dream of life-changing fortunes.
“He actually infiltrated the membership and have become one among us, and we trusted him,” Trevor says. “He wormed his manner in.”
Retirees Trevor Chapman, Noel Higgs, and Tom Cain loved bowling at their native membership on NSW’s central coast.
Utilizing that belief, Trevor and his mates say the businessman satisfied them to take a position chunks of their treasured financial savings in his firm.
His spiel was easy: his mining exploration enterprise owned tenements and leases for land containing treasured gems, gold, coal, and different minerals. It was all supported by a powerful firm web site.
“I trusted him as I’d Noel and Tom, he was one among us and he was doing us a favour,” Trevor provides.
The pensioners say they have been additionally instructed the corporate was going to be listed on the inventory market inside weeks. They may get in on the bottom flooring.
“There was no gray space, it is going to occur in 4 or six weeks … it was a certain factor,” Tom says.
“The spiel was, ‘I will promote [the shares] to you at a cent a share, however they’re actually value a greenback’,” Noel says.
So far as gross sales pitches go, for these pensioners, it was irresistible.
Trevor says the person’s pitch appeared real.(4 Corners)
Based mostly on the businessman’s guarantees and assurances, Tom and Noel invested. So did Trevor, who sunk $5,000 into the corporate.
It was cash Trevor may barely spare, and which he actually couldn’t afford to lose.
“I dwell in a cellular residence village. I am only a pensioner. I’ve bought sufficient within the financial institution most likely to bury myself,” he says.
4 Corners has found different aged bowling membership patrons have been additionally persuaded to take a position, as have been a number of workers.
As soon as their cash was secured, the businessman didn’t stick round.
“After we invested our cash, I do not recall ever seeing him at bowls. He just about vanished,” Trevor says.
‘We are going to get caught out’: Inner firm paperwork
The person who vanished is Edward Lancaster.
A person who has left a path of economic destruction behind him, spanning many years.
4 Corners has obtained lots of of inner firm paperwork revealing the “gentleman” has a felony historical past from the Seventies in New Zealand, together with a jail sentence and a number of convictions for theft by misappropriation and carrying on enterprise whereas bankrupt.
It was one among many details by no means disclosed to the buyers in his mining exploration firm, Greywolf Assets NL.
Edward Lancaster instructed potential buyers Greywolf’s tenements and leases contained treasured gems, gold, coal, and different minerals.(Provided)
Moderately, his Greywolf pitch centred on these claims: his firm had sure-bet mining exploration initiatives and was about to listing on the inventory alternate.
Make investments now, shareholders have been instructed. Get in fast. As a result of as soon as Greywolf hit the market, they might not be capable to afford the shares.
Some buyers even recall Mr Lancaster carrying round “a giant shiny rock” saying, “that is what we’re mining”.
The Greywolf web site additionally listed dozens of mining exploration initiatives as “100 per cent Owned”, and boasted a map of greater than 30 tenements situated throughout Australia.
Nevertheless, the corporate marketed a number of initiatives it had not absolutely acquired and others that had expired.
Confidential firm paperwork and inner Greywolf emails obtained by 4 Corners additional illustrate a sample of false and deceptive statements made by Greywolf.
In a single inner e-mail, a involved firm director warned Mr Lancaster concerning the claims he was making to exterior events.
“We should not have 2 billion tonnes of coal in every of the Bowen Basin tenements as they haven’t been drilled but. The place did these figures come from?”, the director wrote.
He then instructed Mr Lancaster he “shall be seen as a liar or a con man … we are going to get caught out”.
‘It is a certain factor’
When Greywolf got here into Danny and Beryl Paterson’s lives in 2010, they have been in monetary misery.
Danny and Beryl’s two daughters have been born with a particularly uncommon medical situation.
Danny works in visitors administration, Beryl is a full-time carer.(4 Corners: Ryan Sheridan)
The medical bills have been crippling — each greenback was treasured.
Greywolf’s pitch was offered as a once-in-a-lifetime alternative for monetary salvation.
“That’s undoubtedly what was mentioned to me. It is a certain factor and there’s no threat,” Danny says.
“It was an opportunity to set us up possibly with a bit of bit of cash and make it in order that the women had cash if something occurred to me and Beryl.”
He says it regarded like “a goldmine”.
Danny and Beryl’s daughter Anne-Marie was born with a uncommon medical situation.(4 Corners: Ryan Sheridan)
They scraped collectively 1000’s to spend money on Greywolf, plus some assist from Danny’s aged mom.
5 years after investing, their daughter Becky’s well being all of a sudden deteriorated and the household wished to journey abroad for medical assist.
However Greywolf’s promised windfall nonetheless had not materialised.
“If we bought any return with Greywolf, it could’ve been incredible. We may have achieved all that however in the long run, it was simply too late for her,” Beryl says.
Becky died seven years in the past, succumbing to encephalitis.
‘A car to spend different folks’s cash’: Whistleblower
A Greywolf insider has blown the whistle to 4 Corners, revealing how the corporate’s funds have been run.
Daniel Flett is the previous chief monetary officer and firm secretary of Greywolf and has by no means spoken publicly earlier than.
“It is setting the reality free. For years, I felt like there was a flawed that wanted to be corrected,” Daniel says.
He describes his time on the firm as “chaotic”, and a “clusterf***”.
Daniel labored for Greywolf when the cash was flowing in from hopeful buyers. However based on what he witnessed, it was not responsibly managed or spent.
“They pissed it up a wall, if I am being crass,” he says.
Daniel Flett says his time at Greywolf was “chaotic”.(4 Corners)
He says cash was wasted on first-class flights, non-public rooms at Chinese language eating places and limousines.
“A number of it was simply all for present. The primary-class journey did not have to occur … it was only for the facility and status, to maintain up the looks,” he says.
Whereas shareholder cash was being spent on lavish lunches and opulent journey, Daniel says little was spent on mining exploration.
“It will equate to roughly 10 per cent of all funds raised, throughout my time at Greywolf,” he says.
“It grew to become increasingly obvious that it was only a car for folks to spend different folks’s cash.
“It makes me sick to my abdomen as a result of I used to be paid by Greywolf, I collected a wage … I instructed those who sure, it was a reputable firm, and it did have the belongings.”
‘We’re simply battlers’
When a buyer launched Lorraine Fitzjohn to the prospect of investing in Greywolf, it felt like a present.
“I felt like I used to be particular. I believed I used to be blessed,” she says.
She wished to share the blessing along with her household.
Lorraine and her husband did their very own analysis, in addition to getting their accountant to test Greywolf out.
“The chance was to get right into a starter mining firm,” she says.
Lorraine Fitzjohn’s buy of Greywolf shares was her first foray into investing.(4 Corners)
The shares have been super-cheap and the prospect to purchase them was reserved for under a particular few, based on the pitch.
“We might been promised from day dot that it was going onto the ASX. Proper from day dot.”
Lorraine says all through all the guarantees and the spruiking, threat was by no means mentioned by Greywolf.
“Nobody ever talked about it was dangerous. Nobody ever mentioned it was a threat.”
So she put in additional than $100,000, together with her superannuation.
Like so many different Greywolf shareholders, Lorraine was unfamiliar with the world of investing.
Not less than a dozen folks in her prolonged household invested in Greywolf.
Her sister-in-law Christine Holbrook purchased in.
Alongside along with her husband and sons, the grocery store employee estimates they invested $61,000.
It was the primary time they’d ever purchased shares.
Christine Holbook (left) and different members of Lorraine’s household who invested in Greywolf.(4 Corners)
“We’re simply battlers. We did what we thought was proper, we have been led to consider it was going to generate profits,” Christine says.
She has no thought the place the cash went, and feels disgusted.
“We have been simply fed lie after lie.”
‘It makes me sick’
Regardless of all the guarantees, Greywolf by no means listed on the inventory alternate.
Daniel Flett blew the whistle to ASIC about Greywolf and Edward Lancaster again in 2012, with out success.
“I raised the alarm, gave all of the proof by the right channels and never even a telephone name, e-mail, nothing. I may have given them no matter they wished. Not a peep from them,” he says.
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4 Corners has obtained complaints to the company regulator, ASIC, about Mr Lancaster’s enterprise ventures that span a decade.
Greywolf lastly went below in 2019.
Liquidators have discovered Greywolf was probably buying and selling bancrupt since 2014 all the best way to the top.
By then, Greywolf had issued greater than 411 million shares, totalling greater than $7 million.
“Jesus. That is stunning,” Daniel says.
Greywolf had issued greater than 411 million shares by the point it went below in 2019.(4 Corners)
“It makes me sick considering that what … ought to have been a correct firm with belongings behind it and a price there, and may have made folks cash, that Greywolf [was] primarily conning folks out of their financial savings.”
Having resigned as a director of Greywolf in 2015, Mr Lancaster has been free to determine a brand new mining exploration firm.
The corporate is named Lithium Gold Mines Australia, with Mr Lancaster actively courting unsuspecting buyers on Fb and thru small companies across the NSW Central Coast.
Edward Lancaster says he hasn’t misled shareholders.(4 Corners)
When 4 Corners contacted him, the corporate’s web site was taken down a number of hours later.
Mr Lancaster denies deceptive shareholders and says his present firm is “reputable and it’ll listing on the ASX”.
Requested why buyers ought to belief him now, he says: “I do not care whether or not they belief me or not. Who cares?”
ASIC mentioned in an announcement it had acquired complaints about each Greywolf and Lithium-Gold Mines Australia.
In a single case, the regulator gained a court docket order towards Greywolf over its failure to maintain correct firm information.
ASIC mentioned it had acquired different complaints towards the 2 firms and decided no additional motion can be taken.
“This doesn’t imply the businesses have been cleared of wrongdoing, however that ASIC didn’t have enough data or proof to pursue the matter,” it mentioned.
Watch tonight at 8:30 on ABC TV or ABC iview as 4 Corners pursues the elusive businessman and the lacking cash folks invested in his enterprise.
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