Who exactly is owed the debt is unknown, but Mr Myles headed the failed Victoria Property Fund, run by Britannia Management Ltd, whose last asset was a commercial business park development near Nelson which was taken over and sold by a bank under mortgagee sale.
There were 126 investors in Victoria Property.
On his own petition, Mr Myles (52) was adjudged bankrupt in the High Court at Dunedin last week, while in a separate petition in the same court last week, his wife, Robyn Myles (51), also successfully petitioned to be declared bankrupt.
Mr Myles did not return calls yesterday.
The Official Assignee takes over administration of the pair's financial affairs to determine who are creditors and whether there are assets which can be sold to repay debt.
A spokeswoman for the Official Assignee said, when contacted, 12 creditors were owed a total of $699,636.
Mr Myles has debt totalling $557,212 to three creditors, while the remaining debt, of $142,424 was jointly held with his wife, she said.
''It's too early in the administration to be able to estimate a time frame,'' she said, but expected the Official Assignee's investigation to take between 12 and 18 months to complete.
The next step for the Official Assignee was to review the information provided by Mr Myles, then request further information as required.
''When sufficient information has been gathered, the assignee will determine whether there are assets that can be realised for the benefit of creditors,'' the spokeswoman said.
She said the assignee, which operates under the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, was not aware of any other investigations being carried out by any other government agencies.
The spokeswoman said if funds were realised, through asset sales, they would be distributed in accordance with the Insolvency Act 2006.
Mr Myles is no longer a director of Britannia Management Ltd, whose sole director is Roger Bridges.
Britannia's shareholding is 50:50 held by Mr Myles' company Aquarius Trustees Number 274400 Ltd (which is 50:50 owned and co-directed by the Myleses) and Britannia's other 50% of the shares are held by Graeme Davey and George Walker, both of Christchurch.
