"Aut pax aut bellum." Rarely could a company motto have been more apt. On a balmy November morning in a meeting room high above Brisbane's Eagle Street, a raiding party was assembling. After months of fear and frustration, investors had come from around the country on a quest for answers from the "pirate" who, they now felt, had plundered their money.

But if Stuart McAuliffe, the self-proclaimed pirate investor, was worried about the welfare of his marooned shareholders he was doing well to hide it. The portly 48-year-old had eschewed the pirate hat he'd sometimes worn, but slouched in his chair he looked in no mood for compromise.