globaltimenews

[globaltimenews]

Global 1 collapses and Greg Klopper crawls back under a rock

Ahhh, yes! This blog received a very welcome Christmas present with Greg Klopper and Global 1 finally reaching the end of the road. Not with a bang (at least not yet), but rather with a whimper. Let me explain…

Recapping the last few months

Back in mid-August we heard the news that ASIC was going after land banking scams. Their main focus initially was Jamie McIntyre’s schemes, but they flagged clearly that the Global 1 scam was in their crosshairs too:

Similar schemes operating in Melbourne’s outer west and spruiked by a separate but closely related property firm, Market First, have so far avoided ASIC action.

Feldman has been a key player in both 21st Century and Market First. Insiders confirm that she plays an identical marketing role in both Market First and 21st Century and has had a role in most of schemes.

Also central to the operations of both Market First and 21st Century is Greg Klopper, the man behind Global1, and another name linked to Kaye, whose company organises major spruiking events for both 21st Century and Market First based on its massive database.

The growing list of projects have so far failed to produce a single house, much less the helipads, sky lounges, and waterfront lifestyles depicted in brochures and videos used to promote them.

The outlandish claims of “lifestyle” precincts and “architectural masterpieces” in the backblocks of Melbourne’s outer west are now something of a joke among the property and development industry.

Fairfax Media has confirmed from several well-placed sources that at the very time Market First was stepping up pressure on investors to tip money into the Foscari scheme, those behind it were trying to on-sell their own project.

Then late September saw a day of evidence on land banking scams given to the senate enquiry into financial advice. Three victims of Greg Klopper & Rowan Burn’s scam gave evidence on how they were sucked in and fleeced of their hard-earned money:

And then, finally, in mid December came the news we’d all been waiting for: at last ASIC was finally moving on the Global 1 scam property companies. Presumably they’d been preoccupied with Jamie McIntyre, but at last had enough free bandwidth to sort out Greg and co too.

A massive land banking scam linked to notorious property spruiker Henry Kaye is in tatters after the corporate regulator moved to wind up housing projects in Melbourne’s outer west and Bendigo.

The two projects – among about 10 such schemes in Victoria and Queensland – are known as Foscari in Wyndham and Hermitage in Bendigo.

The ASIC statement noted that Foscari and Hermitage projects were not close to completion and “appear to be incapable of completion due to the financial position of the development companies”.

The focus of a Fairfax investigation early this year, the Foscari project had been spruiked as an “iconic, architectural masterpiece” by shady marketing firm Market First. But years after it was flogged in manipulative and misleading seminars it remains a disused rubbish dump in Palmers Road, Truganina.

In March, Fairfax Media revealed that ASIC was investigating a string of projects linked to Kaye and or his sister, Julia Feldman. The inquiry followed Fairfax revelations in January about Foscari and a second Melbourne project, Veneziane in Melton.