Corporate watchdog ASIC has moved to stop the operators of an $11 million managed investment scheme run by New Zealand company Risqy Limited.
About 200 Australian investors paid $11 million to the company on the basis that it would use these funds to invest in the US stock market. Investors were promised a 67 per cent annual return, however, ASIC's enquiries indicated that about $1 million of investors' money had been lost so far.
ASIC alleges that Risqy Limited and its Queensland- based directors, Leslie George Whitford, Graham George Lee and Elizabeth Flora Lacey, were not registered to run such a scheme nor did they hold an Australian financial services licence.
ASIC was also concerned that the illegal scheme did not provide the necessary disclosure documents for investors.
ASIC has obtained injunctions in the Supreme Court of Brisbane to wind up the scheme and to stop the company and its directors from operating the scheme.
