Taurus Group tells investors 'don't speak to media'

656, a syndicate centred around a commercial building on Auckland's Great South Rd, advanced $1.15 million to SPI Assets, which in turn was on-lent to another related party. Photo / NZME.

Investors in property syndicates formerly run by SPI have been told to close ranks to the media.

Two separate investors in the syndicates, which notched up $25 million in accumulated losses during the 2014 financial year, say their manager, Taurus Group, wrote about not speaking to the media.

Taurus Group did not directly respond to the Herald's questions about the matter, citing confidentiality obligations in the syndicates' rules.

One investor saw the letter as an attempt to gag unit holders and called it "ridiculous".

As well as $25 million of accumulated losses, the syndicates' 2014 financial accounts reveal that almost $6.1 million of advances and accrued interest owing by related parties had been fully impaired.

The related parties are Murray Alcock and Allister Knight, who directed Secure Property Investments and started syndicates that raised more than $40 million from investors in the 2000s. SPI managed the syndicates for years and Taurus Group took over several in 2013.

Alcock and Knight have agreed with regulators they will not head companies that seek or hold public funds until November 2019. That follows a probe by the Financial Markets Authority, which said it was likely the men had breached the law.