Barry Kloogh in Dunedin District Court. Photo / ODT
The Barry Kloogh fraud case may soon return to court as his liquidators seek funds from the sale of a property possibly bought with stolen money.
Kloogh is serving a sentence of eight years and 10 months on multiple theft and fraud charges imposed in July last year, for having used a Ponzi scheme to bilk investors of an estimated $12 million.
Kloogh operated two now liquidated firms: his financial planning businesses, Financial Planning Ltd, and Impact Enterprises Ltd, which never traded but was used by its sole shareholder to steal from FPL’s clients.
Kloogh also placed client funds, which he should never have been in personal possession of, into his personal bank accounts.
Neither firm has any substantial realisable assets and Kloogh is bankrupt.
However, proceeds from the sale of an Earnscleugh holiday home owned by two trusts associated with Kloogh – funds which liquidators reported a year ago were about $450,000 – have remained frozen in a solicitor’s trust account for several months while investigators try to trace the fate of individual assets of the 100-plus affected investors.
“The analysis of the banking records of the company has assisted the review of how these properties were funded,” the report said.
“It is anticipated that an application to the High Court for the funds will be filed shortly.”
However, a successful application would likely offer little comfort to the…
