BVI company investments confiscated by Australian Securities & Investments Commission
After the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) succeeded in receiving court approval to confiscate and sell the shares of Sydney biotech company Novogen, held by a BVI-registered Leominister Co Ltd, new facts were revealed in the course of investigation and new court orders were given.
After attempts to discover the identity of BVI company owners failed, new information appeared that linked David Kelly, the son of Novogen’s founder Graeme Kelly, with the mysterious owner of the BVI company. The court was informed that Mr Kelly had sent an email to the British Virgin Islands companies regulator where confirmed that two directors of the Leominister Co Ltd had tendered their resignation.
Mr Kelly has already been linked to Leominster after his office was raided by Australian Crime Commission investigators two years ago, as part of the tax investigation. During these raids, it was believed Graeme Kelly was linked to the BVI offshore entity, while having failed to declare their worldwide income for tax authorities. BVI office of international accounting firm Moore Stephens Associates, which is the registered agent for Leominster, has told ASIC that it cannot identify the ultimate owner of the shares.
BVI-based Leominster also failed to provide the full details of its interest in the Novogen shares, as well as details of any other persons who are exercising control over the Novogen shares. The shares have been the subject of a restraining order preventing Leominster for dealing with or disposing of the shares whilst the proceedings were before the Court.
Leominster was created from a BVI shelf company sold in August 1998. After a year, this company was the owner of 6.7% of Novogen, but it has steadily sold its shares down since that time, and now the company owns just 2.2% of the company.
Leominster Co Ltd held a $4.4 million package of company shares which are now confiscated. ASIC assured that it would not “pocket†the remaining proceeds that are withheld; it had six months in which to sell the shares, and they would be placed in an unclaimed monies account.