Investor warning on bogus poll

Allan Hubbard Photo / Sarah Ivey

The statutory managers for some of the business interests of Timaru millionaire Allan Hubbard are warning investors to be wary of a bogus survey being conducted on two of frozen investment funds.

Investors in Aorangi Securities and Hubbard Management Funds are being contacted by someone claiming to be a Ministry of Economic Development official asking questions about Hubbard, said Richard Simpson, Trevor Thornton and Graeme McGlinn of statutory managers Grant Thornton, in a statement.

"The person doing the survey has said that the investor contact information details have been supplied to them by Grant Thornton NZ Ltd. This is not true. Neither the MED nor Grant Thornton have any knowledge of this survey, nor do we sanction it," they said.

Hubbard and some of his interests were frozen by Commerce Minister Simon Power in June after an anonymous complaint was made by an investor claiming they didn't see a prospectus in Aorangi Securities.

Since then, the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation into these funds, and last week added South Canterbury Finance to its list of cases.

In this month's report, the statutory managers said investors in Aorangi Securities will get a 3 cents in the dollar repayment this month, and a further 20 cents by the middle of next year.