Australia's corporate watchdog has declared that a Bendigo land-banking scheme linked to property spruiker Jamie McIntyre and the sister of the notorious Henry Kaye has "failed", and is seeking to dismiss administrators appointed to a company behind the project.
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The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has announced it will move in the Federal Court on Monday to remove the administrators of Midland HWY Pty Ltd, describing it as a "failed land-banking company".
As The Sunday Age revealed in July, mystery now surrounds the fate of tens of million of dollars outlaid by 700 mum and dad investors.
Originally dubbed Acacia Banks but now known as Hermitage, the project was the second in a string of Victorian land-banking schemes linked to either Mr McIntyre or fellow wealth spruiker, Henry Kaye.
In a written statement, ASIC said it was concerned the original administrators appointed to Midland HWY, PB Advisory, had been replaced by Hall Chadwick administrators, Richard Albarran and Anthony Ross.
ASIC noted that the change had occurred "in circumstances where many investors in Hermitage Bendigo, who may also be creditors, were not given notice of the first meeting of creditors".
ASIC suspended the Sydney-based Mr Albarran's registration as a liquidator for nine months in 2008 over an unrelated matter. It will now seek the removal of Mr Albarran and Hall Chadwick as administrators of the Bendigo scheme.
Under the scheme, investors bought "wholesale options" on undeveloped land on the outskirts of Bendigo, spruiked by Mr McIntyre's controversial marketing firm, 21st Century.
The first creditors meeting for Midland HWY was held in July – in the same week that Mr Kaye's five-year ban from managing public companies expired.
Mr Kaye had a direct role in the first of the land-banking projects in regional Shepparton, which fell into liquidation in 2012. Option holders remain unclear of the fate of their investment three years on.
Since 2010, property spruiking firms Market First and 21st Century have sold options and land packages in proposed luxury estates – often on farmland not yet approved for development – in outer western Melbourne, Ballarat, Wallan and Bendigo.
Mr Kaye's sister, Julia Feldman, was a key player in both companies.
ASIC is investigating the involvement of McIntyre and Kaye following a Fairfax Media investigation into the proposed luxury developments earlier this year.
Both men are expected to be called before a Senate inquiry.
Thousands of investors across Australia have sunk more than $100 million, and up to three times that amount, into the schemes. More than $30 million has been tipped into the Bendigo project alone.
A list of unconfirmed creditors to the Midland HWY company include known Henry Kaye associate Konrad Bobilak and Evans Ellis Lawyers, a central player in most of the schemes.
None of the mum and dad investors in the Bendigo project, who paid $40,000 for initial options over blocks of land were represented at the creditors' meeting.
Belarus-born Mr Kaye first came to prominence in the early 2000s as the head of a get-rich-quick property empire that targeted unsophisticated investors. It collapsed in 2003 owing 3500 investors up to $60 million.
He was later found by the Federal Court to have breached the Trade Practices Act, and in 2010 was barred from managing companies for five years.
In July, Ben Skinner from legal firm Evans Ellis told Fairfax Media that the options on the Bendigo land had been "assigned" to another company, Bilkurra Investments. He said Bilkurra would proceed with the development as planned.
