Accounting giant PwC has lost a second attempt to halt a lawsuit brought against it by the liquidator of a collapsed property development company.
Property Ventures, directed by now-bankrupt Christchurch businessman David Henderson, was the parent of a group of companies that failed after the global financial crisis and left a large Queenstown project unfinished.
Property Ventures' liquidator Robert Walker has launched High Court action against the company's directors - including Henderson, Queen's Counsel Austin Forbes, Adolf de Roos, Gordon Hansen, Alister Johnston - as well as PwC, which was the group's auditors.
Walker alleges that if PwC had done its work properly, the group's insolvency would have become apparent much sooner than it did and would have avoided trading losses said to amount to $320 million.
The action is being paid for by SPF No 10, a company tied to litigation funder LPF Group, whose directors include former Shareholders' Association boss Bruce Sheppard, former Supreme Court judge Bill Wilson and Phillip Newland.
