This article is nothing short of legal theft,and you the investor are stuffed with a loan repayment plus the on going insurancw for trees that will never see a return that you expected.
In essence all the legal argie bargie that us as investors have gone to pay for justice in this scam will come to nothing and at best I surmise that you will be grateful to at the very least accept a pittance.
Unless growers cut to the chase with this legal ponzi and take the receivers and the administrator to the high court to stop this,advisers,investors and mostly everyone who tipped into this scam are losers.
The banks have gone to each of the states supreme court to get,or tell the legal system in their roll that they the banks are the the entity that by legal switcheroo can do what they like with your property,that project transform could not.
In short as I have posted before,it is like someone walking through your front door while you are having tea with your family,and walking over to your cabinet where your wallet sits unannouced and removing money out of your wallet and walking straight out the door and it is legal.
Great Southern go-ahead for loanLeonie Wood
August 18, 2009 .
IN SOME parts of western Victoria, there are so many eucalyptus plantations that the highways seem to be walled with dark green carpet.
It's a phenomenon Justice Ross Robson of the Victorian Supreme Court probably suffers in his own courtroom; one day he is asked to rule on the failed Timbercorp group and the next he is grappling with bankrupt Great Southern Plantations.
He can't seem to get away from the companies. As the judge told counsel yesterday, his weekend drive took him down a long highway flanked on one side by huge stands of timber owned by Timbercorp and on the other by forests belonging to Great Southern.
Yesterday it was Great Southern's turn in court and, after several hours Justice Robson gave a preliminary green light for receivers of the ruined group to borrow yet more funds from three of Great Southern's four secured financiers that are already owed about $380 million.
The banks have agreed to pour another $45 million into Great Southern to ensure that the company's receivers have enough funds to protect and maintain Great Southern's vast timber, almond, olive and vineyard investment schemes until mid-2010.
The court heard Great Southern's receivers had no funds to pay rent for the land the crops are on, or to pay for fertiliser, water, pest control, fencing, firebreaks, road maintenance and harvesting. The employee bill alone is expected to top $6 million this year.
Norman O'Bryan, SC, for Great Southern's receivers, told the court there was ''no guarantee'' the $45 million would be recovered and the banks knew it was ''a risk''.
''On the other hand you have the practical certainty that if you did not spend this money, or some part of it, these schemes will literally and metaphorically wither on the vine,'' Mr O'Bryan said.
Justice Robson also gave a preliminary indication that the receivers could issue a lien to the banks, allowing them to secure the new loan against the assets of the schemes - the harvest proceeds - a security that would come before payments to Great Southern's 40,000 investor-growers.
In an affidavit filed by Great Southern receiver James Thackray of McGrathNicol, the court heard the receivers found disentangling the books and records of the responsible entity had been an extremely difficult task.
The receivers told the court that instead of attributing income and expenses to individual schemes, Great Southern's group accounts bundled income and expenses according to what type of crop was being grown.
Justice Robson said the receivers' description indicated the records were ''a mess''.
Source: The Age