WealthCheck boss Sam Mitchell facing series of staff claims as creditors circle
Sam Mitchell is facing mounting pressure from creditors, with former staff members taking his WealthCheck company to the Fair Work Commission.
Aspirational cattle baron Sam Mitchell is facing mounting pressure from creditors, with former staff members taking his WealthCheck company to the Fair Work Commission, as the business figure moved from a luxury Bondi rental in Sydney to his house in San Diego.
Former ESG and farm compliance staffer John McKenzie has lodged a Federal Court complaint against his former employer, claiming more than $138,732 in unpaid wages and entitlements.
Fellow former WealthCheck staffer Matt Wilson is also likely to make claims against Mr Mitchell’s business.
Court papers reveal that Mr McKenzie claims he was dismissed from WealthCheck in breach of his employment contracts, without procedural fairness or a right to respond.
Mr McKenzie alleges he faced a hostile work environment and saw his access to company systems cut off without cause.
“At no point was I given a proper and fair opportunity to address or respond to these allegations prior to the decision to terminate my employment,” Mr McKenzie claims in court documents.
The former senior staff member also claims he was repeatedly contacted by Mr Mitchell and WealthCheck’s head of HR while on stress leave, before being sacked.
The claims come as the Australian Taxation Office and lenders such as ADM Capital and Rabobank prepare for a Tuesday creditors meeting to fight Mr Mitchell’s appointment of his own administrator salvage, WealthCheck.
Meanwhile, lenders are looking at places where Mr Mitchell may have invested funds offshore.
One of those is likely to be Oak Estate Winery in British Columbia, a self-described “powerhouse” for the winery industry and wedding venue in Canada. Mr Mitchell and his second wife, Andrea Miller, had often boasted to members of North Bondi Surf Club of their investment in the business.
Canadian media reports about the winery describe “longtime friends Andrea Miller and Alysha Harker” discovering the property and “instantly” seeing the “possibilities the land possessed”, according to an article in Food & Wine Trails. The business, purchased for about $C6m ($6.6m), is believed to be for sale.
Ms Miller boasts several WealthCheck companies in her name, as well as online matchmaking and athletics service GoGetterDating, formerly known as Slinder, which received criticism over allegations it fat-shamed users.
Sources said his first wife, Arnotts Biscuits heir Sarah Arnott, is understood to have been thankful she escaped her marriage to Mr Mitchell without too many business entanglements. One of Mr Mitchell’s first businesses was Mitchell Hopkins, a biscuit company that collapsed after six years.
Back then, Mr Mitchell described himself to The Sydney Morning Herald as an agricultural scientist and financial planner who was a “foodie” who made a “mean banana bread” and wanted to change his career.
After that, Mr Mitchell wedged into former South Sydney Rabbitoh Brian James’s development of a Sydney superyacht marina in Rozelle Bay.
A 2012 creditors report for the marina shows liquidators expected creditors would receive only 2.64c in the dollar from the company, with creditors voicing concerns that they vastly overpaid for the assets.
The bitter legal battle that ensued over the Sydney superyacht business resulted in it falling into financial ruin after being valued at $6m in 2011.
Ms Arnott left the marriage and eventually left Australia. She now resides in Europe.
Mr Mitchell, meanwhile, put one series of failed businesses behind him and started afresh in the current industry.
That involves getting cashed-up investors into buying farming lands in Australia for record prices and promising to increase both their farming productivity and create carbon capture projects funded by taxpayer dollars at the same time.
However, big headline deals that were announced and then failed to complete by Mr Mitchell included a $250m bid for the Northern Territory cattle properties of retail billionaire Brett Blundy, and a bid to buy the cattle land of now deceased media man Harold Mitchell.
Many of these widely publicised transactions failed to complete, but their reportage gave potential new investors confidence in his credentials.
The Bondi denizen and member of the North Bondi Surf Club has traded on his former links with the Harvard Endowment Fund, as well as working with well known agricultural real estate dealer Danny Thomas from LAWD.
Mr Thomas and Mr Mitchell have also been directly involved in business, setting up a cattle company.
LAWD would not comment on the ethics of one of their founders working both sides of real estate transactions, and a Harvard spokesman refused to expand on Mr Mitchell’s time working for their agricultural fund in Australia. While many of Mr Mitchell’s companies appear to lack funds, WealthCheck’s current assets include a Beechcraft King Air 260 private plane, currently listed for sale on Aviation Trader for $US7.35m ($11.1m).
Mr Mitchell has appointed Brisbane-based Worrells Mervyn Kitay to work through a potential turnaround strategy, but this move has raised the ire of several creditors to the would-be cattle baron’s WealthCheck Management and The Edge, who are understood to want the companies wound up.
The creditors meeting will be held on Tuesday, with some creditors expected to fight Mr Mitchell’s administration appointee, while Mr McKenzie’s court case will be before the Federal Court next month.
Last week, the ATO launched court action against Mr Mitchell’s WealthCheck, alleging more than $4m was owed in unpaid taxes and superannuation contributions.
This includes one company currently on a payment plan with the ATO over a $1.25m debt.
ADM Capital is also in pursuit of Mr Mitchell, after the Hong Kong lender that extended a $18m financing line to cattle companies under his control, appointed Cor Cordis to pursue claims against The Edge, the parent company of the WealthCheck group.
Mr Mitchell has refused requests for comment, as has Danny Thomas and LAWD.
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