Waitomo Group agreed to a controversial businessman installing mysterious internet technology in 50 service stations – but it soon proved 'pie in the sky'
For weeks, Evan Price would disappear with his tools into a back room at a service station in Epsom, Auckland. He installed shelving, connected up to fibre – but when Waitomo's technician took a look, he was sceptical.
The company had agreed to trial internet technology to sell to its customers, first in its outlet on Auckland's Manukau Rd. Jimmy Ormsby, the managing director and owner of family fuel firm Waitomo Group, says Price pitched him a business plan to install data centres in his service stations, providing cloud-based access for people to stream data.
"To be honest, it was pie in the sky stuff to me, I didn't really understand what he was talking about," Ormsby says. "He's quite good at talking, but there's not a lot of substance."
"I met him twice, I think. And then I told our technical guy, hey look, this guy's not to plug into any of our system operating system."
In the end, Ormsby pulled the pin. "When nothing happened, we just basically shut up shop."
Waitomo didn't lose any money, just a bit of time – but others weren't so fortunate. After the collapse of a string of ambitious schemes, the company run by Tauranga businessman Evan Price and his partner, Leanne Townson, was put into liquidation last year. And this week, Ormsby says he's heard nothing more from Price. "I figured he had shut his businesses down."
Liquidator Simon Dalton published a new report this week, showing a worsening outlook for Price's creditors. He has recovered some assets, that auctioneers are attempting to sell, but overall the best assessment is that the company has a deficit of $592,471. A previous report had understated how much was owed to creditors, "due to the lack of information being provided by the directors".
Newsroom has reported how the liquidation of Evan Price's company, Latitude Dynamix Holdings, has brought together everyone from a former city mayor, a well-known broadcaster and the family of Taika Waititi. The liquidator says Price's parent company Latitude Holdings owes more than $564,000 to creditors, big and small. They invested in bold dreams like a big budget Warner Bros Pokémon movie production in the Bay of Plenty, a 220-hectare Pokémon family fun park, a data hub to break the telcos' retail headlock on tech exporters, and a winter golf tournament at Wairakei.
Newsroom's investigation of the Latitude Dynamix collapse was a finalist for best business reporting in the Voyager Media Awards. Read more: ► Part 1: Big names and locations caught up in film company collapse ► Part 2: Hollywood producer's legal warning to failed businessman ► Part 3: Prison advocate blows whistle on blowhard America's Cup plan ► Do you know more? Email pro@newsroom.co.nz
US TV producer Cassandra Cooper has told of her shock at discovering she is named as a business partner, and at undertakings given in her name in New Zealand. Talkback host Peter Williams, too, has told how Price tried to persuade him to put in his money – then used his name to woo other investors.
Three preferential creditors have lodged proof of $38,189 in debts, and six unsecured creditors have provided evidence of another $564,440 in debts. Newsroom has spoken to his former staff Ellie Stone, Varun Kumar, Derek Botha, Johan Kok and Amir Yussof – some have decided it's not worth reliving the pain by lodging claims.
That's the case for many more creditors – many have told their stories; one couple say they've lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement savings. It seems the real debts left behind by the liquidation of Evan Price and partner Leanne Townson's companies would total well over $1 million.
But Dalton's report says there are no funds to enable a distribution to unsecured creditors.
Most have decided to put it all behind them – the cost of taking Price and Townson to court to recover the money would be prohibitive.
"The liquidators conducted an investigation into the failure of the company and identified several items which warrant further investigation," Dalton's report says. "However, do not have funds to pursue any action. We have written to creditors inviting them to fund potential recovery action, however, no creditor has been willing to provide funding. In the absence of funding we’re unable to take further steps."
And the previously voluble Evan Price has now gone to ground. After previously talking extensively to Newsroom to justify his actions, and insist he was working to pay back his debts, he's no longer returning calls. Last night in Tauranga, his father said Price has been passed on a message to call back.
Colin Booth agreed to build and lease Price a two-storey industrial building in Tauranga, where Price said he would run an innovative data centre, connecting New Zealand direct to the US at high speeds. Price took out a 20-year lease, with a 14-year right of renewal.
But he paid only the first three months rent, in advance, before going to ground. It took two years of lost income, and expensive rates and utility bills, before Booth was able to find a new tenant for the purpose-built property.
Like other registered creditors, Booth says he won't send good money after bad by funding court action against Price and Townson.
A few years ago, he beat cancer. Now, Booth says, he has learned to cut his losses – to not obsess about things he can't control.
