In the latest report to shareholders and creditors, the joint liquidators wrote: “Our investigations are focused on the matters which resulted in a direct loss to the company – the value of investments made in the ultimately insolvent UK trading companies and the fees paid by the company to the various service providers,” reports local newspaper IOM Today.
The fund collapsed in July 2016 after the High Court of Justice of the Isle of Man granted a wind-up application for the three unregulated funds, known collectively as the New Earth Group of Funds.
NERR and its two feeder funds had 3,249 investors and were collectively valued at $292.22m (£207.9m, €234.1m). At the time of winding up, the value of its investments was close to zero.
The funds invested in three UK-based companies involved in recycling and waste management.
In a letter to shareholders dated 16 June 2016, the manager of New Earth Group, The Premier Group, advised that it was unlikely that a sale of assets would generate a return for the fund.
The Premier Group had its financial services licence revoked by the Isle of Man regulator in December 2017.
Legal advice
“To date, we have secured in excess of 200,000 unique documents from the various advisers and service providers, many of which run to hundreds of pages,” said liquidators Alex Adam from Deloitte and David Craine from Isle of Man-based Browne Craine & Co.
A tranche of documents was released after the liquidators managed to secure access to the records of a service provider that had previously declined to share its files.
During their initial review of the documents, the liquidators said that have identified a number of potential issues that could lead to causes of action.
These have been passed to their legal advisers, IOM Today reported.
“That review remains ongoing. The review of such a volume of documentation is time consuming but essential to understanding the underlying business and transactions of the fund,” the report added.
Adam and Craine wrote they are “reasonably confident” their investigation will result in claims made for the benefit of creditors and shareholders.
Isle of Man taxpayers have been footing the bill for the liquidation through the island’s Financial Services Authority (FSA). However, the funding is subject to ongoing review and can be withdrawn at any time.
