SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Failed property developer a devotee of US motivator Tony Robbins

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Hamish James Clarke, a failed property developer, paid tens of thousands of dollars for managers to attend motivational seminars with Tony Robbins, as his company, Valiant Homes Ltd, was falling into disarray.

Clarke, sole director and sole shareholder of the company, who has disappeared owing $6 million, was a big fan of the over-the-top American, famed for his high energy performances and bestselling book Unleash the Power Within.

It’s estimated the Valiant Homes group owes at least $6 million to investors, suppliers, tradespeople and the Inland Revenue Department, and the collapse has left housing developments in various states of completion.

Valiant Homes receiver Chris McCullagh, of PKF Corporate Recovery, confirmed again this week that he hasn’t been able to find Clarke since the company went under.

See full story by Maria Slade published 6/09/15:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/71633999/failed-property-developer-a-devotee-of-us-motivator-tony-robbins

Hamish James Clarke – another failed property developer – his company owes millions

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Hamish James Clarke, a failed property developer gave his fiancee a diamond engagement ring while staying at a $1500-a-night Italian hotel only months before his company collapsed owing millions of dollars.

He has ‘disappeared’ since his company Valiant Homes Ltd was put into liquidation on 4 March 2015, owing around $6m to investors, suppliers, tradies and the tax man. He was the sole shareholder and sole director of the failed company.

Angry creditors say they haven’t been able to contact Clarke since he put the company into liquidation with reports of his whereabouts coming in from Australia to Sweden to Dubai.

When Valiant Homes’ lender, Savings & Loans Ltd, owed $3.2m, called in the receivers the day after the liquidation it found Valiant’s offices empty with no sign of the company’s records or computer servers.

Unsecured creditors of Valiant Homes including dozens of tradespeople are owed $1.4 million, the receiver estimates.

See full story published 30/08/15:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/71481959/failed-property-developer-puts-a-ring-on-it [Read more…]

Robert James Cottle, Infratech Mining (In Liq), The Bellbird Trust, and the 9,999,000 share issue

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Infratech Mining Ltd (In Liq) which was directed by former bankrupt Robert James Cottle, was put into liquidation by one of its creditors on 26 June 2015 in the Nelson High Court. It was 74.05% owned by Infratech Group Ltd, and described by Cottle on Companies Office records as a “Holding Company – passive investment in subsidiary companies”. Private investors, many from Nelson, New Zealand, owned the remaining 25.06% of the company shares. A Liquidation report prepared by the Official Assignee has revealed that $1.9m had been raised by Infratech Mining from shareholders, mostly from the Nelson region, along with total claims by creditors of $4.3m. [Read more…]

Robert James Cottle, former bankrupt, scams goldmining investors – creditors seek $4.3M

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Nelson investors have been left $2 million out of pocket after a former bankrupt Robert James Cottle promised them lucrative returns as part of a Colombian opencast goldmining scheme that never eventuated.

Infratech Mining Ltd was put into liquidation by by a creditor, Mr Lindsay Newton, on 26 June 2015 after a defended court hearing in the Nelson High Court. Newton loaned the company $200,000 in short term funds and was offered shares in lieu of interest. The Official Assignee was appointed liquidator by the High Court.

The company’s sole director was Robert James Cottle and he set up the company on 18 February 2009, just days after he was discharged from a February 2006 bankruptcy.

Robert Cottle

Infratech Mining managing director Bob Cottle at one of his proposed gold mining sites in Colombia. Stuff News 6/10/14

 

Infratech, which records its premises on the Companies Office website,as 5 Duncan Street, Port Nelson, Nelson, 7010, New Zealand, was seeking to raise US$100 million to build a gold and platinum mine in Colombia. Company documents prepared in 2009, pitching for $9m from shareholders, claimed investors could see annual returns of 1000 per cent. Robert James Cottle claimed the mine could produce 428,000 ounces of gold annually resulting in profits of more than $100m.

Six years on, since the company was incorporated, investor Lindsay Newton has lost $200,000, and the mine was yet to be built.

[Read more…]

Ant Timpson and his defunct NZ film festival – Films that set out to shock and offend

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“FILMS THAT SET OUT TO SHOCK AND OFFEND” NEW ZEALANDERS in 2002

Evening Post Editorial Comment on Anthony (Ant) Timpson’s now defunct Becks Incredible Film Festival [BIFF]. The last BIFF was staged in 2004. May it R.I. P.

Three Films were withdrawn from the [now defunct] BIFF in 2002, prompted by the actions of the Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc: Baise Moi (a sexually explicit French Rape film), Visitor Q (featuring necrophilia, incest, gratuitous violence and rape) and Bully.  Interim Restriction Orders were granted by the Film and Literature Board of Review and High Court (in case of Baise-Moi) so that the classifications could be reconsidered by the Board de novo.

“Public debates on censorship serve the useful purpose of refining and fleshing out public attitudes on important moral questions. But in a sense, the debate over censorship begs a very important question. Films such as Baise-Moi and Visitor Q (a Japanese film notable for an explicit sequence involving sex with a corpse) invite attention from morals campaigners because they highlight – even celebrate – violence, perversion and degradation. Their potential to shock and offend is unabashedly used as a selling point by organisers [such as BIFF Director Ant Timpson] of events such as the [now defunct] Beck’s Incredible Film Festival. Society might well ask whether it has lost its way when such festivals rely so heavily on films that focus relentlessly on the dark side of the human condition.” (Evening Post 23/05/2002)

Below: Complete Editorial Comment – The Evening Post, Wellington New Zealand. May 23, 2002

Films that Shock Editorial re SPCS and censorship

For background story see:

https://www.spcs.org.nz/revitalised-campaign-against-gratuitous-sexual-violence-in-movies-ignites-censorship-debate/