Imperial
Consolidated co-founder Lincoln Fraser has staved off personal
bankruptcy - for now, at least - after a commercial rent debt
of
£16,599 (US$26,600) was paid at the eleventh hour.
A petition to have
Fraser declared bankrupt was due to be heard at Grimsby County
Court, England on January 20, 2003. It will not now proceed
after payment in full was made a few days ago, said a
spokesman for the petitioning creditor, Nadan Properties Ltd.,
of London.
Nadan Properties is
the landlord of a commercial property leased by the Fraser
Brook Partnership in February, 2002 and which lies next to the
Midland Grand Hotel, in Lancashire, which was the cause of
Fraser's first bankruptcy in 1996.
It is unclear as to
who paid the debt since the assets of The Fraser Brook
Partnership, its two partners, Lincoln Fraser and Jared Brook;
and several related parties have been frozen since August 12,
2002.
Fraser's attorney,
Lee Dunnill, a Manchester-based partner in Pinsent Curtis
Biddle, had not returned a telephone message by our deadline.
Meanwhile, it has
been alleged in a separate
lawsuit filed at the UK High Court
that Fraser and
Imperial Consolidated co-founder Jared Brook illegally sold a
company airplane and pocketed the proceeds two days after the
group went into administration.
The Beech Superking
Air 200 airplane was sold by Imperial Consolidated Holdings
Inc., of Delaware, and the proceeds deposited into an account
at the Royal Bank of Scotland in the name of The Fraser Brook
Partnership, according to a complaint filed by Mazars Neville Russell, as administrator of Imperial
Consolidated Ltd. and Imperial Consolidated Financiers Ltd.
Although the
action was filed on August 11, 2002, it has only just been
made publicly available by the court, which required
notification that all 19 defendants had been served before
releasing it. The trial is expected to start in June, 2003.
Defendants are
Lincoln Julian Fraser, Jared Bentley Brook, The Fraser Brook
Partnership, Nicholas Grant Fraser, Tony Smith, Mark Andrew
Colyer, Neil Arthur Buck, Andrew Crawshaw, Imperial
Consolidated Holdings Inc., Hellas (UK) Limited, Unibay UK
Ltd., G3 Systems Limited, G3 Strategic Limited, Leisure Group
UK Ltd., Leisure Properties Limited, Tucuman Land Holdings
Limited, Equity and Commercial Finance Limited, Imperial
Dealmakers Limited and Platinum I S Holdings Ltd.
Imperial
Consolidated went into administration in June, 2002 - two and
a half years after being exposed by OffshoreAlert - and has
estimated liabilities of $345 million owed to investors around
the world.
Despite being banned as
a company director in the United Kingdom and having his assets frozen,
Fraser continues to operate at least one UK-registered company,
namely Matrix International (Management) Ltd., d.b.a. Matrix
Investigations, which has
published several pro-Fraser/Brook 'stories' in recent months without disclosing that the
firm is controlled by
Fraser.
"We have reviewed the 'articles' on Matrix's website. Many of
these are neither accurate nor unbiased," said Mazars
Neville Russell in a
statement issued on January 15, 2003.
Mazars added:
"Matrix is clearly connected with the Fraser Brook
partnership. On its website the business gives the same
correspondence address as the Fraser Brook partnership, at
Faldingworth in Lincolnshire, and in documents registered with
the Registrar of Companies, its director, Mr. Hugh Allen,
gives the same residential address as Mr. Lincoln Fraser."
In another
statement,
Mazars stated: "The Serious Fraud Office has now formally
adopted this case and has commenced investigations into the
Imperial Consolidated Group's affairs.
"The Joint
Administrators are cooperating with law enforcement
authorities, but investors should be aware that the criminal
investigation is a matter governed and pursued by the Serious
Fraud Office and is distinct from the activities of the Joint
Administrators."
