Little Caesars’ revival fails after Bitwealth’s Matthew Goettsche charged in bitcoin scandal

Little Caesars was on the cusp of being saved from complete collapse. Then Matthew Goettsche’s life unravelled — and so did the deal.

• Little Caesars director MIA as debts hit $8.5m
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LITTLE Caesars’ administrator believes a plan to revive the NSW pizza chain failed at the 11th hour because a key investor was charged over an alleged billion-dollar bitcoin fraud.

Now the 14-store operation will be liquidated, but there won’t be enough money to pay back any creditor other than the Commonwealth Bank.

Even covering the entitlements of its 130 employees will require tapping into a taxpayer-funded scheme.

The Saturday Telegraph can reveal one of Little Caesars’ administrators, Jirsch Sutherland partner Andrew Spring, had been negotiating a restructure of the chain with a US company Bitwealth.

But in early December the deal fell through after Bitwealth’s co-owner Matthew Goettsche was arrested and charged with attempted wire fraud and other federal offences by US authorities.

Matthew Goettsche, who has been charged over an alleged cryptocurrency fraud. Picture: Instagram

Goettsche is currently in custody in Colorado, accused of masterminding a scheme to dupe “cryptocurrency mining pool” investors of at least $US722 million ($1.04 billion).

Mr Spring said he believed the Little Caesars restructure failed because of what had happened to Goettsche.

“It just seems to me that I could draw that conclusion,” Mr Spring said.

“You’ve got to put two and two together.

“There had been a lot of enthusiasm from the Bitwealth end to getting this deal sorted.”

As revealed by The Telegraph earlier this week, Bitwealth had already invested $14 million into Little Caesars across 2018-19.

The sole director of the company behind Little Caesars, Evo Pizza Pty Ltd, is Ernest Koury, who has left Australia and is not co-operating with the administrators.

Mr Koury could not be contacted for this article.

In the US, Little Caesars is the third-largest pizza chain. It is privately owned by 86-year-old billionaire Marian Ilitch, who is one of the 10 richest women in the world.

Mr Spring said he offered US Little Caesars the chance to “roll” the Australian franchise into its operation.

“They opted not to do that,” he said.

Mr Spring said he had not checked the bona fides of Bitwealth because US Little Caesars had “verified” it.

All 14 Little Caesars stores have been closed since the sale fell through.

The business has debts of more than $8.5 million.

Mr Spring said the liquidation proceeds wouldn’t even cover the nearly $2 million owed to its secured creditor, the Commonwealth Bank.

Some of the $230,000 of entitlements owed to workers will be paid from the federal Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme, he said.

KFC is also owed more than $260,000 in unpaid rent for a Newcastle site.