- Australian liquidators have recovered only $6.7 million of an estimated $60 million invested in NGS Crypto, a “digital mining” scheme marketed as a retirement strategy.
- The Federal Court ordered the Gold Coast-linked group to be wound up after finding it operated without a financial services licence and posed a serious risk to investors.
- Liquidators from McGrathNicol are tracing the missing funds but warned that recovery is complicated by extreme crypto price volatility and assets locked in long-term staking.
Federal Court liquidators have so far identified about AU$6,885,000 in cryptocurrency from an estimated AU$60 million invested with a Gold Coast-linked “digital mining” scheme promoted as a retirement strategy.
ASIC said more than 450 Australians put money into NGS Crypto and related entities over about six years. Many did it through self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) after the companies encouraged investors to set them up.
The court found the NGS entities ran a financial services business without an Australian financial services licence. Justice Berna Collier ordered the group wound up and permanently restrained it from operating a financial services business, citing a serious risk to investors and breaches of the Corporations Act.
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Investors Left Scrambled
ASIC obtained freezing orders in April last year to stop assets being moved, targeting the companies and directors Ryan Brown, Brett Mendham and Mark Ten Caten. ASIC also took Mendham’s passport. Ten Caten is believed to be outside Australia, and Brown was last year located in Brisbane. The freezing orders remain in place.
The team marketed the project as blockchain “mining packages” and claimed fixed-rate returns of up to 16% a year, alongside assurances that investors would get their capital back. ASIC said its investigation was triggered by concerns investor funds may have been improperly handled.
Advisory firm McGrathNicol has been appointed liquidator and is also the court-ordered receiver for the identified crypto. It now has powers to trace where the remaining funds went, but said valuation can change quickly due to crypto price swings and that some assets are locked in staking arrangements that may not unlock until 2037.
McGrathNicol also told the court it can be difficult to determine which crypto belongs to which investor.
Read more: U.S. Senate Unveils Crypto Oversight Draft as Australia Sounds Alarm on Falling Behind
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