AMONG the emails the MFS chief financial officer David Anderson received in January 2008 was a request to help his colleagues justify what had happened to $147.5 million from the Premium Income Fund the year before. It said: ''Need your creative brain.''
It was almost two months after amounts of about $100 million moved out of the fund into MFS Administration, and to the US lender Fortress Credit, all on the same day, and three days before the Gold Coast investment group's shares plummeted from more than $3 to 99¢.
The deputy chief executive, Craig White, emailed Mr Anderson seeking his help in filling in the blanks of a document being drafted on January 15 for the fund's investment approval committee. The document being drafted was dated November 28, 2007.
''The purpose of this paper is to seek approval for a proposal to invest in the following loan assets with a combined value of $147.5 million,'' the document said.
Those ''following assets'' were all, literally, question marks on the page, the NSW Supreme Court heard yesterday.
MFS (later named Octaviar) collapsed in 2008 owing $2.5 billion and with inter-company loans totalling $1 billion.
Under examination by the liquidator Kate Barnet of Bentleys Corporate Recovery, Mr Anderson said he was not involved in approvals for the fund and he had believed assets involved in $147.5 million worth of transactions had been allocated at the relevant time, although perhaps not all the paperwork had been done.
Mr Anderson was shown a list of six loans he sent to Mr White on January 23 and asked if that was the list he came up with with his ''creative brain''.
He told the court that Mr White, by then the chief executive, had provided him with the list and asked him to type it out.
Adam Bell, SC, for the liquidator, questioned why the company chief financial officer would be asked to do the work of a secretary.
''Are you saying this list doesn't involve any intellectual function from you at all?'' Mr Bell asked.
Mr Anderson said that was correct, and it was a crazy time at MFS - everyone was busy after the share price crashed on January 18.
''I was also aware that this was something which should have been done a long time before. That would have been on Craig's mind, and he asked me to do it rather than someone with potentially less discretion,'' Mr Anderson told the court.
About 20 minutes later, he sent Mr White an amended list, totalling $147.5 million.
Examinations continue today.
NA WENN DA MAL ALF NICHT NOCH JEMANDEN VERKLAGEN WILL UND DIE CHANCEN STEHEN GANZ GUT, WENN ICH DAS SO LESE ;-))
