A public examination into the activities of the former chief executive of Wright Global Investments (WGI) has heard company assets of about $200,000 were used to pay the chief's legal bills and possibly a mortgage connected to his partner.
Earlier this month, Mark Schroeder fronted a public examination in the New South Wales Supreme Court over questions about the location of WGI assets, including a sum of more than $190,000.
Legal representatives for WGI liquidator Peter Ngan, of Ngan and Co, separately pressed Schroeder and his partner, Therese Goodacre, over the whereabouts of company assets and discrepancies in the pair's bank accounts.
The examination heard the $190,000 came from the sale of London Partners' client parcel to WGI authorised representative Varker Nominees.
However, rather than a cheque for the payment be made out to WGI, the examination heard Schroeder accepted the $190,000 on behalf of a WGI director in the form of a personal cheque made out to him.
Schroeder told the examination the reason he accepted the personal cheque was that he had been instructed to do so by a WGI director, who Schroeder named as Trio Capital chief Shawn Richard.
When questioned as to why Schroeder did not pay the $190,000 into the WGI bank accounts, Schroeder said Richard had instructed him to accept the money on his behalf as he was unable to bank the cheque due to legal issues relating to the collapse of Trio Capital.
Schroeder said Richard had also instructed him to use the $190,000 to pay off his legal debt of around $110,000.
"Richard put pressure on us to repay the loans. He asked me to receive the money to hold it until further instructions. I understood it was for more legal fees," he said.
He told the examination that as Richard had "funded" WGI and he considered him as his "boss", he had decided to place the $190,000 into a trust on Richard's behalf for safe keeping.
When asked whether Schroeder was concerned about receiving the personal cheque as a director of the company, he said he was not.
"I didn't see anything untoward. I was simply helping the business out," he said.
When directed to bank statements, Schroeder could not explain why figures of around $100,000 appeared in his partner's mortgage accounts.
When asked if he used the money to pay Richard's legal bills, the former WGI chief replied no. When asked if he returned the money to Richard, he replied no.
Schroeder said Richard had "gifted" him the money, which Schroeder decided to use part of to defend actions made against him by former WGI advisers in July last year.
He said he also did not return the money to WGI as he had gained a release from WGI directors as part of their legal case against him.
When Goodacre was questioned over multiple cash transfers of more than $100,000 to her mortgage account in August 2010, she was unable to explain the transactions.
"My husband looks after our affairs; I don't see the statements," she said.
The examination has been adjourned.
