How the Marlborough family went from Ferraris to corporate failure and bankruptcy as ASIC probe Benchmark Private Wealth

FROM Bentleys to bankruptcy. The Marlboroughs are used to lapping up luxury mansions, cars and holidays - but authorities are closing in on their empire of excess wealth.

EXCLUSIVE

WHEN Braiden Marlborough handed his boss $70,000 in cash, Liam Young didn’t ask questions.

“The Marlboroughs were a family of means,” Mr Young, the CEO of the wealth creation business Benchmark, would later tell an investigator and lawyer from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

“I don’t ask them where they get their money from.”

In documents obtained from the Queensland Supreme Court in proceedings to wind up Benchmark Private Wealth, ASIC says it suspects the cash was fraudulently diverted by Braiden’s father, Richard Marlborough, so it didn’t end up being paid to creditors of Members Alliance, which had recently gone into liquidation while he was a director.

Braiden and Mr Young were senior employees there prior to its collapse. Richard was arrested and charged last month over separate claims relating to Members Alliance.

MORE: In the Marlborough family, even the dog travels in style

Richard Marlborough leaves the police watch house in Brisbane last month. Picture: AAP

In the winding up proceedings, ASIC alleges Richard Marlborough deceived developers of a western Sydney housing estate into paying $240,000 in sales commissions into a company controlled by him rather than to Members Alliance, which has debts of more than $40 million.

He denies the allegation.

In the transcript of an interview contained on the court file, Mr Young tells ASIC’s investigator and lawyer Braiden handed the $70,000 to him in October 2016.

Benchmark had only been in operation for a few months but was already in the red.

Asked what inquiries he had made about the original source of the cash, Mr Young said it was reasonable of him to assume it was Braiden’s or his mother’s, noting he drove an Aston Martin Vanquish while working at Members Alliance.

“Is that good?” ASIC’s lawyer asked.

“I believe they’re a $300,000 car,” Mr Young replied.

The investigator interjected: “And did he own that personally?”

RELATED: Inside the collapse of Members Alliance

Braiden and Richard Marlborough at Braiden’s 2011 engagement party on the Gold Coast. Picture: Facebook

Mr Young said he wasn’t sure, but “when a gentleman is previously driving an Aston Martin, and a family that you see driving around in Ferraris and Mercedes Benzes and the like, provides you loans of money … I generally had an assumption that they had sufficient (means).”

Mr Young continued to deny he knew the $70,000 had come from the father.

But the ASIC duo kept on going, asking if he was “comfortable” about Richard lending Benchmark money and driving around a gated golf community on the Gold Coast in a Bentley while Members Alliance unsecured creditors were owed money.

“I understand he owed money,” Mr Young said, “but … I believed all his affairs were structured in a manner that he was, you know, in a sense a straw man with, with nothing behind him.”

ASIC then honed in on the loan being run through Mr Young’s personal account before entering Benchmark’s coffers.

“Fair question,” Mr Young said. Richard “was the office boogeyman in Benchmark because of his role of, effectively, not paying staff.”

Benchmark Private Wealth director Liam Young. Picture: Luke Marsden.

So he didn’t want the office bookkeeper spreading gossip that Richard was lending money.

Court documents show ASIC and Mr Young have reached an agreement that will see six Benchmark companies wound up.

Meanwhile, the regulator is investigating the involvement of Mr Young, Richard Marlborough and his daughter-in-law Maighan Brown. They strongly deny allegations they have breached the Corporations Act.

No allegation of wrongdoing has been made against Braiden Marlborough.

Last month police arrested and charged Richard Marlborough with allegedly using his position as a director of a Members Alliance group company to “dishonesty induce” ANZ to pay the company $1.75 million. He is defending the charge.

He recently declared bankruptcy, owing the ATO about $27 million.

He listed among his assets a Rolls Royce worth $640,000. When Queensland Police went to his Hope Island mansion to arrest him, he was arriving home in a Bentley.

Richard Marlborough as seen in an arrest video from the Queensland Police Service. Source: QPS

Triathlon is Maighan’s great escape

AS corporate cops investigate her involvement in a failed wealth creation business, Maighan Brown has thrown herself into triathlons, rising to the ranks of the elite.

Ms Brown — who recently married Richard Marlborough’s son Braiden after a six-year engagement — competed in her first top-level event four weeks ago, finishing 20th out of 24 starters in the Glenelg sprint triathlon Oceania Cup.

“A great weekend away, racing in my first ever elite triathlon race, against an incredibly strong field,” she said on Instagram. “Learnt a lot & now looking forward to the next!”

Maighan Brown training at home, with her dog. Picture: Instagram

In September last year she won her age group at the ITU World Triathlon grand final in Rotterdam.

“So happy with my performance today & even happier to be the World Sprint Distance Champion in my age group!” she wrote on Instagram. “Thank you so so much to my amazing family and husband for travelling over the other side of the world to watch me — couldn’t have done it without you all — love you.”

Maighan Brown with her parents and husband Braiden Marlborough after the ITU World Triathlon. Picture: Instagram

A honeymoon followed.

Her sporting success has come despite the battles she has faced due to her involvement at Benchmark Private Wealth. It is under investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, as is her former employer, another wealth creation business, Members Alliance.

Emails from Ms Brown — obtained by News Corp Australia from the Queensland Supreme Court — show her vehemently denying she was a director of one of the Benchmark companies, despite records showing she was.

Maighan Brown with her husband Braiden Marlborough on their honeymoon. Source: Instagram

“I was not aware that I was a director of this company, nor did I provide consent to becoming a director of this company,” she wrote on November 22 last year in reply to the ASIC-appointed provisional liquidator of the Benchmark group. She said she had completed a statutory declaration to this effect.

In documents filed with the court, the provisional liquidator accuses Ms Brown of failing to provide him with “adequate assistance” in breach of the Corporations Act.

Ms Brown strongly denies the accusations against her.