Court case against Aryn Hala discontinued, ASIC investigations into $25m scheme still ongoing

ASIC has dropped its civil court case against directors of a Gold Coast company, who it originally alleged had taken more than $25m in investments and spent millions on luxury cars and cryptocurrency.

Court action has been dropped against directors of an unlicensed Gold Coast investment company, who corporate regulator ASIC originally alleged had taken more than $25m from investors and stashed millions of dollars in untouchable cryptocurrency.

ASIC obtained a Federal Court order to freeze the assets of directors Aryn Henry Hala and Heidi Elizabeth Walters over their alleged involvement with company A One Multi in November 2021. The company denied wrong doing.

In its original claim, ASIC accused the company of taking funds from more than 60 clients, telling them they would receive annual investment returns of over 20 per cent.

Instead, ASIC alleged, $5.7m of the investment money was used to buy luxury vehicles and property and millions more was spent on crypto.

In her 2021 decision, Federal Court Justice Sarah Derrington restricted the pair from travel and ordered them to hand over any access codes for the alleged missing crypto. Mr Hala was ordered to transfer any currency he held to the receivers.

Aryn Hala of A One Multi.

Aryn Hala of A One Multi.

Ms Walters was released from the orders in March 2023 and the proceeding against her was discontinued.

Last week, Justice Derrington ordered that the proceedings and orders against Mr Hala, 42, also be discontinued by consent.

Although the civil case against him has finished, ASIC said investigations into the scheme were ongoing. No charges have been laid against Mr Hala or Ms Walters.

ASIC applied on October 25 to wind up A One Multi, the only remaining defendant in the Federal case.

During the proceedings, the regulator turned its attention to the company’s former receivers, John Lindholm and Timothy Michael of KPMG, who were appointed to A One from 2021 until September 1 this year.

According to their administration return for the year to October 2022, receivers were only able to recover $201,000 worth of the alleged missing crypto.

An end of administration return, covering the past year, has not been lodged with ASIC.

In September 2022, the court ordered $773,115 be paid from the assets of the company, Mr Hala, and/or Ms Walters, to cover fees of receivers, for their first seven months’ work on the case.

Investigators said up to $22m worth of Bitcoin could have been purchased by A One Multi. (Photo by INA FASSBENDER / AFP)

The Judge denied a request from the receivers, for which ASIC lodged an objection, to be paid in advance for work they expected to complete for the remainder of their work.

The receivers have lodged a new remuneration application with the court, prompting ASIC to successfully request permission to cross examine Mr Michael about his “knowledge and state of mind” about the likelihood of recovering the crypto assets when receivers took on the case.

The order will also allow ASIC to ask about work Mr Michael performed after forming “a view about the poor financial position of the receivership” and about the decisions made by receivers about the viability of the work to recover the assets.

A date is yet to be set for the next court hearing.