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A man who was referred to the New Zealand Commerce Commission over claims he had invented a fuel-saving pill is making headlines again after a $43.2 million fortune disappeared from his accounts.
Tim Johnston is the chairman of the petrol-pill company Firepower, which was wound up by Australian courts in August, leaving a large number of angry creditors.
This week, creditors in the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean were told millions are missing from the discredited boss's bank accounts.
Firepower liquidator Bryan Hughes said at a creditors' meeting that money found in overseas accounts by former company chief executive John Finnin several weeks ago was no longer there.
"He's basically saying now that the money in the last eight weeks has been moved into other accounts that he cannot trace," Mr Hughes told Australian reporters.
"He can't tell us how he could trace them before and he can't give us any substantial information."
Firepower laid claim to a superpill for petrol tanks that it said could reduce fuel consumption by up to 20 per cent.
More than 1200 Australian shareholders invested between $80 million and $100 million into the company. Angry creditors now include the Western Force rugby team and the now-defunct Sydney Kings basketball team.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has begun action against Mr Johnston, who is thought to be living in Britain, and other businessmen including property developer Warren Anderson.
Australian news reports about the company and its products bear similarities to 1992 reports in New Zealand.
A four-month investigation by the National Business Review, reported in August 1992, said New Zealanders were spending up to $100,000 a month on the petrol pill, which was then claimed to cut fuel costs 17 per cent.
When put into vehicles, the pills were supposed to cut emissions, save on fuel costs and give cars more power.
But the paper could not find any evidence the pills, sold in a multi-level marketing campaign, worked.
"Investigations by the NBR have found the company's marketing plan is fraught with false and misleading statements which the Commerce Commission has been investigating for several months," it reported.
The NBR said its inquiries into companies Mr Johnston was dealing with, tests he said were run on the product and organisations he claimed recommended the pills revealed questionable conduct.
The NZ Automobile Association ran tests on the products and made similar findings in September 1992 in relation to what it termed Mr Johnston's "dubious motoring products".
Mr Johnston was also a director and acted as executive chairman of the parent company Firepower BVI, based in the British Virgin Islands.
A separate company in the Cayman Islands holds the intellectual property rights to Firepower products, including the so-called secret formula for the fuel additive pill.
- STAFF REPORTER, AAP
