Jetset lifestyle of Blue Chip men

Bob Bangerter. Photo / Paul Estcourt

For a few glorious years, Blue Chip business partners and buddies Mark Bryers and Bob Bangerter were on a high.

As Blue Chip customers raided their piggy banks and tweaked the equity in their family homes, the cash rolled in. It was a culture awash with money run by people who spent up large to maintain a lavish lifestyle. Funding huge loans from banks and finance companies was no problem.

The Blue Chip presentation was charismatic, relying on investment seminars, word-of-mouth, friends of friends and family networks to spread the good word. The target was "conservative" investors, the older age group who were wary of high-risk investments but understood the gains to be had from the Auckland property market.

The Rev Allan Hawea, a Rotorua Anglican priest, says a Blue Chip representative gave a presentation to the church last year. As a result, some church members were keen to invest $160,000 of the church's money, as well as private money. "Fortunately some members opposed such an investment and in the end the trust deed over these funds prevented such an investment."

The original introduction, through a church member, was typical of how Blue Chip operated.

Once in the door, Blue Chip's presentation was slick and convincing. The outward trappings were impressive, from the expensive annual reports and Blue Chip publications to Bryers' and Bangerter's immaculate clothes and expensive European cars.

Last week the Herald on Sunday revealed that Mark Bryers last year regularly spent thousands of dollars in an Auckland downtown brothel, the HQ Club, sometimes booking out the club and all the workers for the entire night.

Blue Chip senior staff also drove expensive cars and even newcomers were treated royally.

One young former employee says in 2006 he went from driving a delivery van for a liquor company to working at Bribanc, Blue Chip's property management company, with a salary, perks and a new wardrobe of clothes.

The company offered him $2000 a year more than he asked for and on his first day he was taken to lunch at The Wine Chambers, an expensive Auckland restaurant.

Back in 2002 and 2003, Bryers and Bangerter spent thousands of dollars chartering an 8-seater Piper Navajo from Christian Aviation at Ardmore Airport to attend Blue Chip investment seminars around the North Island,including Hamilton and Rotorua.

They preached their message and sold their story wherever they went - even to the aircraft charter company staff. Many of their own staff, in New Zealand and Australia, were convinced, investing in Blue Chip property portfolios and persuading family and friends to do the same.