PROPERTY developer and mortgage broker, Samuel Saunders from Orange, New South Wales, has pleaded guilty to seven charges brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Saunders, who is also the former director of a number of companies including Mortgage Finance Australia Pty Ltd, Australian Synergies Group Pty Ltd, Orion Pacific Developments Pty Ltd and the Rafferty’s Group Pty Ltd, is charged with three counts of obtaining money by false or misleading statements and four counts of fraudulent misappropriation of money collected.
Each charge carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment.
All seven charges relate to the fundraising activities of Saunders while he was a director of Mortgage Finance Australia Pty Ltd between July and September 2004.
ASIC alleges that Saunders raised approximately $460,000 from 14 investors for the purposes of investing in property developments and that he:
· made misleading or deceptive statements to six investors about the risk associated with investing in a property development; and
· raised funds from eight investors for the purposes of a property development by Rafferty’s, but failed to pay the investors’ capital to the company.
Saunders also assisted a number of investors to refinance their mortgages, redraw the equity on their property, and use the equity to fund the investments he promoted. Many of the investors were known to Saunders through his local church.
Mortgage Finance Australia Pty Ltd is in liquidation.
Australian Property Journal
