An "in-house review" on behalf of clients who lost money in the failed Victoria Property Fund has been launched and Dunedin-based registered financial service provider Craig Myles has "stepped aside" from being a director of NZ Funds Private Wealth Ltd.
Mr Myles remains a director of Britannia Management Ltd, the fund manager of the Victoria Property Fund, which has cost investors more than $1 million in losses.
NZ Funds Private Wealth Ltd director Richard James said when contacted yesterday NZ Funds bought a "minority stake" in Mr Myles' Myles Planning Ltd in the "early-2000s", then in November 2011 acquired Mr Myles' remaining stake and rebranded it to NZ Funds Private Wealth.
While agreeing the Victoria Property Fund and its clients came under the "umbrella" of NZ Funds Private Wealth Ltd, the funds management and decision-making remained with original manager Britannia.
"Issues of the Victoria Property Fund were known to us, but what transpired since then was a more significant event than [was] anticipated," Mr James said.
Mr Myles said when contacted yesterday he voluntarily stepped aside when NZ Funds Private Wealth undertook the review of "the market impacts on and wind-down process of the Victoria Property Fund".
"This is a review I have advocated and supported ... I considered the independence required for such a review could be seen to be compromised by my active participation, so have stepped aside," he said.
Mr James was in Dunedin last week and spoke to affected clients, advisers and the trustee, Perpetual Trust, but yesterday was unable to confirm the exact extent of losses or how many investors were affected.
He estimated it could take months, as opposed to weeks, for the review to be completed.
Mr James said legal advice had been sought. The review would include what decisions were taken in management of Victoria, what was communicated and to whom, and if all information supplied was appropriate.
