Login
iscover
The former Magnolia Group director infamous for his spat with ASX-listed The Agency has been placed under a 10-year ban from providing financial services.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has recently disqualified money manager Mitchell Atkins from managing any corporations for the next five years.
Mr Atkins has also been banned from providing financial services or engaging in credit activities for the next decade.
The Magnolia Group reportedly operated a range of share investment and financial advice businesses from 2018 until the group’s collapse in 2022. At the time of the collapse, Magnolia owed unsecured creditors “millions of dollars”, according to ASIC.
Liquidators reported that the Magnolia Group of Companies, helmed by Mr Atkins, owes creditors an estimated $40 million to $50 million.
Mr Atkins was declared bankrupt earlier this year, in March 2023.
ASIC claimed that Mr Atkins has “failed to act in good faith as a director by putting investor funds at risk, showed a lack of honesty and integrity by creating false documents, co-mingling investor funds and displayed a lack of competence, professionalism and financial management”.
The commission declared him unfit to provide financial services or to engage in credit activities due to “making misleading and deceptive representations to investors about their investments and dishonestly retaining investor funds”.
In 2021, Mr Atkins made headlines in the property world when he attempted to put The Agency into voluntary administration, claiming that the real estate group was insolvent.
Mr Atkins, who formerly held a non-executive directorial position at The Agency, had used the forced administration to compel The Agency to pay out a claimed $390,000 debt, a debt which The Agency disputed.
A court ruling in November 2021 found “overwhelmingly” in the real estate company’s favour, and ordered Magnolia to pay The Agency’s costs in the proceedings ($140,505), costs of the costs submissions ($4,000), costs of the injunction proceedings ($28,266) and the administrators’ costs ($39,498).
In June 2023, Mr Atkins was also banned from leaving Australia for a period of six months as part of ASIC’s investigation into his conduct, with ASIC also sharing that its investigation into the affairs of the Magnolia Capital Group is continuing.
You are not authorised to post comments.
Comments will undergo moderation before they get published.