High-flying Goldsky fund couple face bankruptcy over missing cash

A glamorous Gold Coast couple who lived a lavish life while the husband promoted himself as a trading genius whose so-called hedge-fund could make his high-profile athlete investors rich, are facing the prospect of bankruptcy.

A glamorous Gold Coast couple who lived a lavish life while the husband promoted himself as a trading genius whose so-called hedge-fund could make his high-profile athlete investors rich, are facing the prospect of bankruptcy.

Ken Grace and his wife Jane Marzin-Grace, who now live in the Isle of Capri, have been served with creditor’s petitions by the liquidator of Ken’s unregistered managed investments scheme, known as the Goldsky Global Access Fund.

The fund, which Mr Grace boasted was a “hedge fund” that could deliver near 20 per cent returns, was described by the corporate watchdog as a possible “Ponzi scheme”.

It has been wound up but $24 million of investor money is unaccounted for.

Investors who lost money included high-profile sports stars ­including Olympic swimming legend Samantha Riley, Cyclist Robbie McEwen and Brisbane Lions champion Simon Black.

Liquidator Chris Baskerville of Jirsch Sutherland filed two petitions in the Federal Circuit Court in Brisbane on Tuesday seeking sequestration orders to make both Ken and Jane Grace bankrupt.

Goldsky Global Access Fund directors and couple Jane Marzin-Grace and Ken Grace. Picture Mike Batterham

Mr Baskerville alleges in the petition against Mr Grace, obtained by The Courier Mail, that Mr Grace took $1m without authorisation from a bank account owned by Goldsky Asset Management Australia Pty Ltd on September 28 last year, and used it “to pay for personal expenses and for his own use”.

Mr Baskerville alleges in the petition against Mrs Grace, that she took $100,000 without authorisation from a bank account owned by Goldsky lnvestments Pty Ltd on September 19, 2016, to pay for personal expenses.

Mr Baskerville alleges that the couple both agreed to tip themselves into bankruptcy two months ago by lodging debtor’s petitions with the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA).

But Mr Baskerville alleges they have been unable to be bankrupted “due to defects in the documents” they lodged with AFSA.

In May the Supreme Court ruled that Goldsky Global Access Fund, Goldsky Asset Management Australia and Goldsky Investments all operated while unlicenced on various dates in 2017 and 2018.

When the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) froze the couple’s bank accounts in November last year, ASIC told the Supreme Court in Brisbane that there were dozens of “suspicious transactions” worth $1 million in Goldsky’s accounts, including $747,646 “likely” transferred to Mr Grace’s family members, and about $300,000 allegedly spent on jewellery and watches, cosmetic surgery, clothing, restaurant meals and beauty treatments.

The transactions also allegedly include $14,025 spent at a beauty spa in the Cayman Islands – where Mr Grace boasted he had a Goldsky fund – in October last year

The bankruptcy case is due in court on December 5.