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Earlier this month Eric Watson was charged with insider trading by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
A $57 million claim against New Zealand businessman Eric Watson is set to be filed by the liquidators of his failed Cullen Group.
After a long-running court dispute with Inland Revenue, Cullen Group was placed in liquidation by court order in 2019.
An earlier High Court judgement ruled that Cullen Group was part of a “web of entities” which avoided paying $59.5m in tax. Cullen Group was ordered to pay the tax back, plus interest and costs totalling $112m.
KPMG’s Vivian Fatupaito and Luke Norman were appointed liquidators of Cullen Group and 20 related companies.
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Their fourth liquidators’ report said Cullen Investments, the main asset holding company within the group, was owed about $57m by Watson, who had reciprocal loan accounts with the company.
Liquidators’ discussions with representatives of Watson had not resulted in an outcome, the report said.
“Proceedings against Mr Watson have been drafted and are ready to be filed, after finalising a logistical matter regarding service of the relevant documents,” it said.
Liquidators’ expected to have proceedings filed within the coming weeks and would provide an update in the next reporting period.
The news comes just a week after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Watson with insider trading after passing non-public information about a drinks company to a friend before its share price skyrocketed.
Six months ago the former rich-lister was released from London’s Pentonville Prison where he served four months for contempt of court after withholding information about his assets from philanthropist and former business partner Sir Owen Glenn.
Cullen Group’s liquidators say Cullen Investments is the shareholder of a number of group entities and has or had interests via loans, advances and shareholdings in numerous other entities.
Investigations into the assets and creditor position were ongoing and could not be fully disclosed to avoid prejudicing the liquidators’ position, the report said.
“It appears that a number of assets recorded in Cullen Investments balance sheet are either unrecoverable, have purportedly been transferred to another party, written off or are uneconomical to pursue.”
Liquidators were of the view that Cullen Investments had a claim of about $3.6m against Naked Group chief executive Justin Davis Rice, which he disputes.
“Demand has been issued and further correspondence has been exchanged.”
Cullen Investments was also owed about US$12.6m (NZ$18m) from United States company Hart Agriculture Corp, owned by Watson’s brother Richard Watson.
“We have issued demand on Hart but have not received a satisfactory response. We are currently considering our position in relation to this loan.”
Kea Investments, belonging to Glenn, had a large debt claim against Watson, and it was understood Kea had recovered significant assets from Watson and his associated interests, the report said.