ASIC raids offices of troubled property fund Equititrust

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has reportedly raided the offices of fund management group Equititrust, also removing the company’s financial services licence.

Both Equititrust itself and ASIC were contacted by SmartCompany this morning.

ASIC declined to comment, while a representative from Equititrust was unavailable prior to publication.

The reported raid comes after years of trouble for the firm, which has frozen investors’ funds after it suffered significant damage during the financial crisis. Creditors have reportedly demanded a restructure of the entire company, which is suffering under millions of debt, while the board was completely restructured in June.

Founder Mark McIvor stepped down as chief executive in June.

According to a statement released by the company yesterday, statutory accounts and compliance audits were in arrears for the financial year ending June 2011. It also said there was “an absence of a consolidated integrated database across the property assets”.

The statement confirmed the board has appointed a review of its statutory accounts, and has planned to undertake a full forensic audit and review of the company’s files “to ensure a responsible and efficient management of the wind up of the fund’s property assets”, with a qualified forensic investigator to be applied.

The board also “affirmed its absolute commitment to working with regulators and creditors to ensure fairness and transparency… and affirmed its commitment to a program of asset realisation to pay out Equititrust’s debts to the banks as a matter of priority”.

But this statement comes as a new report from the Courier Mail indicates that former board member David Tucker has filed an application in the Queensland Supreme Court to have an insolvency expert oversee Equititrust’s liquidation.

He has reported as saying in the report that McIvor is not fit or able to be in control of the winding up of Equititrust’s Income Fund.