Economic News, Investor News

Angry Gold Coast investor pleads for price-fixing probe

A family blamed in part for the collapse of a top real estate agency has issued a plea to the Ray White national chairman, Brian White.

They want him to investigate an alleged price-fixing scheme that affected the values of multi-million-dollar properties on the Gold Coast.

The collapse of Ray White Broadbeach, which was placed in receivership on Tuesday with debts of up to $5 million, follows a severe market downturn as well as a relentless campaign by aggrieved investors Rod Lambert and his wife, Lisa, who have made allegations of fraud that are under investigation. 

The appointment of receivers to the leading agency has rung alarm bells across the property market on the Gold Coast, where beachfront values have plunged by as much as 50 per cent since the peak of the boom in 2008.

An investigation by The Weekend Australian earlier this year revealed that a string of transactions involving “put and call” contracts on properties along the Mermaid Beach strip had led to values being artificially inflated by millions.

Queensland’s Fair Trading Minister Peter Lawlor said he believed the transactions “stink to high heaven” and were a matter for police. Mr White told The Australian yesterday it would be best if Queensland police and the Office of Fair Trading could complete their investigations into the transactions as quickly as possible.

“These matters should be brought to a head and we are ready for full disclosure and we want to bring it on,” he said.

He said Mr Lambert, a highly experienced real estate agent and developer, had become obsessed by his losses after buying a property at the top of the boom, and blamed the Ray White Group.

Mr White said of Mr Lambert’s plea: “We are keen for independent investigations to reach their conclusion and we are ready to co-operate in any way we can.”

Owners are sitting on multi-million-dollar losses as the property market continues to decline, if several highly unusual Mermaid Beach transactions investigated by The Weekend Australian earlier this year were to occur in greater numbers.

Mr Lambert, who has lost several million dollars, said he was waging a David and Goliath battle that would end only when Mr White acknowledged the culpability of people in one of his leading agencies. The agency’s principal, Gary Gannon, and top agent, Michael Kollosche, have acknowledged that some of the transactions had unusual features, but have emphatically rejected being responsible.

Mr Lambert said yesterday: “We take no pleasure out of what is happening in the market, but we will not stop until there is acknowledgement and justice.”

More than 90 people are employed in the Broadbeach agency and Mr White said that his family would work closely with the receivers to ensure the staff and their clients were supported.

Source:  The Australian Online

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