Sanctuary Cove, Gold Coast Ponzi home sells for eye watering price tag

A couple who bought a luxury Sanctuary Cove house previously known as the Ponzi home has sold the property. Find out how much for

A couple who bought a luxury Sanctuary Cove house previously known as the Ponzi home has sold the property for $8m.

George Lim and Jennifer Tan bought the waterfront 1019 Edgecliff Drive property for $3.9m at a receiver auction in 2018.

The receiver sale followed the troubles of India’s Pearls group, former owner of the Sheraton Mirage Hotel on the Southport Spit.

In 2016, the Indian government arrested the Pearls founder, former milkman Nirmal Bhangoo Singh, over a Ponzi scheme in which up to 50 million Indians allegedly were cheated out of $10bn.

The Pearls Group Ponzi scheme, which roped in about 58.5 million people from 1996 to 2014, promised plots of land to investors “often poorly educated and with very modest means’’, according to Australian Federal Court documents.

The Pearls group in 2011 outlaid $4.9m, via Pearls Infrastructure Projects, for the Sanctuary Cove house and an adjacent lot.

It tried to sell the property six years ago, rejecting a $4.6m bid at auction.

Shortly afterwards the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which had cottoned on to the Ponzi scheme, took over before the Federal Court seized jurisdiction over the property and appointed receivers.

Nirmal Bhangoo’s daughter Barinda was among those who lived in the house, which has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a lift, parking for six cars, and a jetty.

She subsequently was arrested by Indian authorities, along with several other Pearls figures.

Matt Gates, of Ray White Prestige, said on Friday the Sanctuary Cove home had undergone a major transformation under the Lim-Tan ownership.

“A small fortune has been spent on what amounts to a total renovation.”

Mr Gates said the $8m buyer, from interstate, was the latest person to target high-end homes worth $8m or more at the resort.

Pearls bought the Sheraton Mirage Hotel on the Southport Spit for $62.5m before that was offloaded to Star Entertainment Group for $140m in 2017.

Originally published as Sanctuary Cove, Gold Coast Ponzi home sells for eye watering price tag