The former managing director of Financial Wealth has been forced to answer questions over the validity of his bankruptcy claim and the value of his assets as part of a public examination into a company linked to the group.
On Tuesday, Maurice Terreiro appeared in the New South Wales division of the Federal Court as part of a public examination into Terreiro International Holdings Pty Ltd (TIH).
It is believed TIH was a secondary company run by Terreiro and its failure as a business was behind his bankruptcy claim. TIH was placed in liquidation in February last year.
As part of the examination, TIH liquidator William James Hamilton, of Hamiltons Chartered Accountants, claimed a company linked to Financial Wealth, Financial Wealth Services, had accepted large sums of money said to be around $350,000 to $500,000 as part of a property deal.
When asked about a $350,000 payment, Terreiro denied the money had ever been deposited into a bank account held by Financial Wealth Services.
Terreiro also denied he had business assets including revenue from SWS and its software KEYS, as well as personal assets including expensive high-end motor vehicles totalling around $4.4 million.
He claimed his personal assets included a laptop computer, SWS company shares and superannuation contributions that were worth less than $100,000.
When presented with documents that alleged he had $4.4 million of assets, Terreiro declared privilege, stated the figures were incorrect and claimed the document was created by Financial Wealth Services director Greg Thompson in a bid to raise finance for the company.
While Terreiro confirmed he had signed the document, he denied he had ever shown it to a third party.
Terreiro also denied there was confusion over the transfer of 150,400 shares in SWS from his name to his fellow SWS director and former Astarra Capital employee, now partner, Zoe Viellaris.
Terreiro filed for bankruptcy on 12 March 2009, according to an extract from the Insolvency and Trustee Service Australia's national personal insolvency index.
Liquidators Pino Fiorentino and Hamiltons Chartered Accountants were appointed to TIH in February last year.
