Colin Oxlade picked the wrong fight taking on Dr Sarah McEwan, who shut down his company

Sick of Colin Oxlade’s excuses about unpaid dividends and promises of riches to come – and failed by ASIC – Dr Sarah McEwan took her fight to the Supreme Court, and won.

Dr Sarah McEwan is an accomplished regional health practitioner. Picture: Supplied.

Sarah McEwan wishes she’d never heard the name Colin Oxlade.

And with the clarity of hindsight, if she’d done a simple internet search on Oxlade when she was offered the chance to more than double her money on a gold project in the Papua New Guinea highlands, there was no way she ever would have invested.

The indigenous general practitioner boasts a Masters in Health Administration, several industry accolades and has devoted her life to serving communities across Australia’s remote North,

Get rich quick schemes, she says, don’t fit her value set.

But three years ago, having just lost her mother and with her half brother having brought her a deal which was, Oxlade told her half-brother, iron-clad, she says she was at the time vulnerable – an easy mark. And her thoughts turned instead to the good she could do with the money.

Once the deal quickly soured, Oxlade – as McEwan would soon find out a serial offender – would find he had picked the wrong woman to mess with.

Dr McEwan would shut down Oxlade’s company, taking the fight herself to the Supreme Court.

Along the way – to her disgust and outrage – she’d get no help from either the police or the corporate regulator, and is now questioning what role they are meant to play, if not to step in and protect people in her exact position, and put the brakes on people such as Oxlade who she says, appear to be able to act with impunity.

In mid-2020, as Dr McEwan tells it, her half brother reached out to her with an investment opportunity which he wanted access to their recently-deceased mother’s estate to take advantage of.

In retrospect Dr McEwan says, the red flags should have been obvious. The returns being promised were phenomenal – a minimum 100 per cent within a short time frame. It was being touted as a “risk-free” investment, but there was a need to get in quickly or miss out – classic high pressure sales tactics.

And then there was the project itself – a company called PGL Gold, now a subsidiary of Impact Gold, was claiming to have the rights to an enormous gold deposit in the Maprik region of Papua New Guinea.

Literally billions of dollars worth of gold was sitting there in the rivers of the PNG highlands.

Colin Oxlade.

The company just needed some investor capital to extract it.

For the record PGL Gold, through founder David Catsoulis – himself a two-time bankrupt with a patchy business history – says Oxlade no longer raises capital for the company and if he is indeed raising capital, it is using his own shares in PGL Gold, not as an advocate of the company.

Impact Gold does claim to have identified the largest gold resource in the world using the little-known “Resonance Frequency Geo Technology” (RFGT) which it says it has proprietary access to, and Mr Catsoulis has previously claimed the company’s total in ground minerals resource at about $100bn.

The proposal put to Dr McEwan by her brother was straightforward.

An initial $50,000, later increased to $75,000 would be invested via a family trust.

Emails from Oxlade to her brother indicated that dividends would start to flow back to Dr McEwan and her brother almost immediately, once gold extraction and sales had begun.

The initial investment would be repaid in full via the first dividend payment on June 30, 2020 – just weeks after the initial investment.

“Subsequent dividends shall be paid every month thereafter, equal to the 50c per share for the life of mine, while in minimum production of 400kg (of gold) per month,’’ an email from Oxlade dated June 5, 2020 says.

“This guarantee buyback provides you a 100 per cent safety net … by providing an underwriting/guarantee that should the first dividend not be paid in full by the 15th July 2020, Ox Consolidated Holdings will offer to repay your original investment of $50,000 and you get to keep the 100,000 shares as I (sic) sign of good faith/ goodwill.’’

The email, which purports to be copied in to Mr Catsoulis, includes a share certificate for shares in PGL Gold.

A similar email regarding the $25,000 follow-on investment has also been sighted by The Australian.

In retrospect the returns promised were ludicrous – a 100 per cent return on capital every month for the life of a mine which was expected to run for about seven years.

By August of 2020, with not a cent having flowed back her way, Dr McEwan was understandably getting nervous and wanted to exercise her supposed “money back guarantee’’.

What was flowing instead was a generous stream of excuses. An email from Oxlade dated July 14 says the original dividend payment would be pushed back to July 31 at the latest, due to operational, weather and pandemic impacts on the mining operations.

The good news was the dividend would be bigger than first expected, and again, it was a sure thing.

“This July 31st date has been confirmed by PGL Gold and essentially underwritten by the attached PGL Gold Sample Expansion Program document (not for circulation please),’’ Oxlade writes.

“As the PGL Gold project gets bigger by the week and renewed production (sample) numbers show exactly what we have and what we have achieved in a little over 12 months, I ask for your understanding and support of this slight delay with these dividend payments in these unprecedented times.’’

Further email correspondence between Dr McEwan’s brother and Oxlade, which Dr McEwan was forwarded, indicates the growing consternation and frustration the investors were experiencing, which was fended off with ever increasing claims from Oxlade, including that an offer had been made to buy out PGL – but was rejected for being too low.

One email in late July says “the great news is that the first 300kg has been picked up and heading to the Gold Coast for processing/refinement/ smeltering and sale”.

“We are just about there, and exciting times ahead.’’

In another email dated July 31, Oxlade says it is “14 days to glory”, and there was even better news to come.

“Without wanting to sound too excited, and trying to keep a lid on things … And that is hard. From all indications (extension testing, sampling, assay and RFGT, which found the gold), we are sitting on one of the largest alluvial gold deposit (sic) in the world.

“To be an early investor, advisor and confidante into something like this is what I have been waiting for in all my 50 plus GST years on this planet!!!’’

To cut a long story short, no dividends were ever paid, and Dr McEwan realised she would have to take matters into her own hands.

As Dr McEwan freely admits now, a quick internet search for “Colin Oxlade” would likely have put paid to any notion of investing with him.

As it happened, once Oxlade’s excuses for not paying back their money began to pile up, this is exactly what she did, finding in the process that he was still, in 2020, banned from being a company director.

“An Adelaide businessman with a terrible track record has been banned from managing companies for four years,’’ a story published in The Advertiser in mid-June 2017 reads.

Following an investigation by the corporate regulator ASIC, Oxlade had been struck off as a director following the appointment of liquidators to two companies he managed – Vanilla Management & Investment Group, and Africa Uranium.

“During its investigation, ASIC found that Mr Oxlade had a history as the director of multiple failed companies and unpaid creditors over a period of at least 12 years,’’ the story says.

“In the case of three companies – Ox Marketing, Vanilla Group, and Africa Uranium – the amount owed to creditors was substantial and Mr Oxlade’s own management of the companies contributed to their failure.’’

A Federal Court judgment also available online shows Oxlade was also at one time a broker for Astra Resources, which ASIC moved against in 2016, disqualifying three former directors from managing corporations.

In that matter, founders Jaydeep Biswas and Silvana De Cianni were disqualified for 12 years and lawyer Barrie Meerkin for nine years.

An ASIC media release from July 2015 found that “Astra Resources raised more than $6.5m illegally from 281 investors during 2011 and 2012’’, with the British company raising money from investors without a prospectus or a similar disclosure document, as required under Australian law.

Given Oxlade’s past performance, and his history of interaction with the regulator, Dr McEwan believed at the time, that a path to some sort of vindication had just presented itself.

But she was sorely mistaken, as the following response from ASIC indicates.

“We assess all reports of misconduct we receive to determine whether we have sufficient grounds to take further action to regulate the industry,’’ the regulator told her via email.

“Generally, this includes whether the reports suggest a pattern of breaches of the legislation we administer and whether ASIC’s intervention would be appropriate and necessary for the benefit of the broader community in Australia beyond the affected individuals.

“Following ASIC’s consideration, we have formed the view that there is insufficient evidence that Mr Oxlade or Ox Consolidated Holdings Pty Ltd have breached an obligation in the legislation we administer which would warrant regulatory action by ASIC.

“ASIC is of the view that there are options available to you to resolve your concerns. For these reasons, ASIC has determined not to take further action in response to the concerns raised in your correspondence.’’

Dr McEwan was on her own, with a self-funded fight in the Supreme Court the only real option left open to her.

Oxlade’s promises of payment continued right up until the moment his company, Ox Consolidated Holdings, was placed in liquidation by Queensland’s Supreme Court in mid-March, by this time approaching three years after the original investment.

In keeping with his previous form, the claims were impressive.

Dr Sarah McEwan

“I am awaiting a train shipment of precious metals to be delivered to Melbourne Refinery Group in Melbourne, in the state of Victoria,’’ an affidavit filed with the court says.

“That delivery has been delayed and is now due tomorrow.

“Upon delivery of the precious metals, they will be subject to an atomic spectrometer analysis which determines the quality and quantity of the precious metals that are for sale.

“I expect to be paid shortly thereafter for the precious metals. I expect that payment to be a net sum to me of $12.5m.

“I will use the settlement sum to pay what is owing to the applicant herein.’’

Company and internet searches turn up no evidence that any entity called Melbourne Refinery Group exists.

Having heard many such promises before, Dr McEwan’s lawyers pressed the matter, and Ox Consolidated Holdings was placed in liquidation on March 10.

While the liquidator will now go through the process of assessing the company’s debts and assets, Dr McEwan has little faith of getting a return via this process.

When contacted by the Australian, Oxlade said via email he had never made any claims about the projected returns and did not even know Dr McEwan, having only dealt with her brother.

Specifically asked whether he stood by promises of 100 per cent returns each month, Oxlade said: “What are you talking about? Show me where I have stated this ?………………..PNG Gold has not been around for years? Where do you get your information from ? Are you referring to Impact Gold Ltd?”

He also did not directly answer questions as to whether he had been paid the $12.5m in royalties referred to in his affidavit to the court or whether the Melbourne Refinery Group actually existed.

“What do they have to do with anything? I have had some metal samples tested by this Company in Melbourne which has nothing to do with any of the Companies / projects you have previously mentioned?’’

Dr McEwan says her motivation to take this matter all the way to court, given what she sees as an abrogation of its duties by the corporate regulator, was to at least be afforded some sort of justice.

But where she asks, does that leave others not willing or able to pursue the lengthy, stressful, and expensive process of chasing down and holding to account people spruiking risky or dubious investments?

“Justice is my major basis and I can’t let things rest if I haven’t pursued to the nth-degree what I believe is right,’’ Dr McEwan says.

“This is not just affecting me. I assume that there’s a whole line of other people that it affects.’’

Having worked hard to become a doctor from humble beginnings, Dr McEwan says she is in the privileged position of having the wherewithal to fend for herself in court.

“I was warned that … the reality was that you probably have to put down just as much money (in legal fees) to even get a chance to getting it back.

“It just gives you no faith in the system.

“If you can’t take it to the top regulatory body for someone to take it seriously with the background history that they should already know about Oxlade, then I’m not sure where you turn.

“For them to turn around and say it’s a civil matter, you have to use your own money, time and resources to pursue this, it’s a big slap in the face to be honest.’’

Dr McEwan said she had had to swallow her pride and publicly admit she’d made a bad, even stupid investment.

“But I’m willing to swallow my pride for the ultimate benefit of others,’’ she said.

“Deep down, I’m trying to believe in karma of some sort.

“And it’s just so hard and just disempowering for the average citizen to know that basically, unless you have resources of your own, trying to get anywhere to get any kind of justice. in this situation (ASIC) is just not going to help you.’’

Originally published as Colin Oxlade picked the wrong fight taking on Dr Sarah McEwan, who shut down his company