Fight for bankrupt Peter Drake’s palatial Fiji property

A BANKRUPTCY trustee is fighting to take control of the sprawling Fiji holiday home of the founder of the failed LM funds management group, Peter Drake.

Peter Drake’s palatial Fijian property.

A BANKRUPTCY trustee is fighting to take control of the sprawling Fiji holiday home of the founder of the failed LM funds management group, Peter Drake.

Jason Bettles has revealed he is facing obstacles, including claims on the property from Mr Drake, his ex-wife, and daughter.

He alleges Mr Drake is potentially breaching the Bankruptcy Act and his automatic discharge from bankruptcy might be opposed.

Peter Drake’s house in Fiji.

Four years ago Mr Drake’s luxury beachfront Mermaid Beach house, once on the market at $20 million, was sold by mortgagee the ANZ Bank for $7.35 million.

Mr Bettles, in a new report sent to Drake creditors this week, said that if the obstacles to taking possession of the Fiji house, which overlooks the ocean and has a tennis court and pool, were overcome, he hoped to have the six-bedroom property on the market by the end of the year.

LM founder Peter Drake.

He was in the process of having the property valued.

The house is in an elite enclave in the town of Savusavu, on Fiji’s second-largest island, and is close to a luxury resort owned by international motivational speaker Anthony Robbins.

It was built for Mr Drake more than a decade ago and an adjoining lot was bought to house the tennis court and a games room.

The deck of the Fijian property.

The businessman opted for bankruptcy in January 2015 in the wake of his Surfers Paradise-based LM group foundering and he declared unsecured debts of $342 million.

Mr Bettles, from Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants, was appointed his bankruptcy trustee.

He said a major creditor was funding the trustee’s actions over the Fiji house in the hope that it would be sold ‘for the benefit of creditors.’

He said Mr Drake maintained he was holding the Fiji house as a trustee of a trust on behalf of his three children.

Views from the property to the ocean.

The bankruptcy trustee claimed Mr Drake’s name was on the property title and there was no mention of a trust so Fijian law recognised Mr Drake as the home’s beneficial owner.

The bankruptcy trustees, to take title to the house, were seeking the original certificates of title from the ANZ Bank and Mr Drake’s former Fijian solicitor.

“Both the ANZ and the solicitor have refused to release the certificates without Mr Drake’s written consent, which he has refused to give, potentially in breach of the Bankruptcy Act.

“We are considering lodging an objection to Mr Drake’s automatic discharge from bankruptcy, and an offence referral to the government regulator.”

An aerial view of the property.

Mr Bettles said Mr Drake’s daughter, Dhanika Gates, wanted the house transferred into her name, as she had turned 18, and his ex-wife, Mrs Belinda Gates, was claiming an interest in the property.

Mrs Gates had reopened Family Court property settlement proceedings with Mr Drake and had lodged a caveat on the house title.

Mr Bettles said the trustees were taking advice on the Gates caveat and, to protect their own interest in the property, had engaged solicitors in Fiji to lodge a caveat

He said mother and daughter had indicated they were prepared to go to court in Fiji to settle the ownership dispute.