Henry kaye where is he now

Some purchasers alleged the apartment prices were heavily inflated. The case was discontinued in when a witness significantly changed his evidence.

In , Kaye's troubles continued when he was disqualified from managing corporations for five years, stemming from his role as a property spruiker. But while Kaye, now 45, has receded from public view, associates from that time and copy-cats have sprung up to run similar operations.

They include his sister Julia, who once purportedly fell out with Kaye, and has had a key role at Market First, which is marketing projects on Melbourne's western fringe. The life and times of Henry Kaye. Please try again later. The Age. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size.

But we are getting sidetracked. Henry is not charged with cheating even one of the thousands of consumers who paid him tens of millions of dollars. Here's what he [is alleged to have] did to the bank. To get finance to build the apartments, the developer needed to show the bank that a large number of apartments had been pre-sold.

It's called selling off-the-plan. Buyers pay a deposit and sign a binding contract promising to complete the sale when the building is completed. Instead of paying deposits, Henry taught people how to use deposit bonds.

This is where buyers can go to a company and, for a small fee, buy a deposit bond. After satisfying itself of the financial merits of the buyer, the deposit bond company guarantees to the seller that the deposit will be paid.

A deposit bond is a very strong arrangement. It means a sale is virtually guaranteed at least for the deposit which is usually ten per cent of the price. Henry Kaye [allegedly] asked GIO to issue deposit bonds to any buyers regardless of whether or not they could really qualify for finance.

It appears that some of that money was spent on sites in Melbourne's sprawling outer-west where Kaye road tested his new business — urban fringe land-banking. In manipulative seminars from to , Kaye, his sister and their offsiders, flogged projects such as Foscari an "iconic architectural masterpiece" and Veneziane the "Toorak of the West". But years after the projects were spruiked and options sold, not one sale has been finalised nor brick laid.

In some cases, investors were literally buying options where Kaye's team only had options — an options on options, in other words. An important element of the Kaye swindle was to wrap it in credibility by promoting the involvement — usually fleeting and often unpaid — of big brand names including architects Fender Katsalidis, lawyers Slater and Gordon and, even, the Victorian government.

While Kaye was not among the 10 witnesses called for public examination, The Sunday Age understands that this is because ASIC is hoping to build a case against him before acting. But the regulator has a problem. Kaye appears to have disappeared.

It's likely that much of the land-banking riches are with him. If Kaye has absconded, and no one is held to account for ripping off thousands of investors, ASIC faces a potential embarrassment. It will soon be three years since The Age revealed the land-banking scam and pointed to the involvement of Kaye and his family.

To date, no one has been held responsible. The land banking scam has been a top investigative priority for ASIC since. If the regulator falls short in its pursuit of Kaye and his cronies it will be the second time it has done so. Its first attempt failed spectacularly almost a decade ago. Kaye's sister Julia Feldman was summoned for public examination but did not appear, claiming she was too ill.