Risky $3m crypto bet helped push Queensland building company Privium to wall

Failed building company Privium made a risky $3m investment in cryptocurrency before it collapsed last year leaving hundreds of homes unfinished across Australia.

Failed Queensland building company Privium made a $3m investment in cryptocurrency before it collapsed last year leaving hundreds of homes unfinished across Australia.

Liquidators FTI Consulting have uncovered the investment that they say contributed to the $80m failure of the Brisbane-based business in December.

Liquidators also are probing a complex series of transfers by Privium including one of more than half a million dollars to a Christian charity Love Your World linked to the wife of Privium founder Rob Harder.

In a report to creditors, FTI said Privium had acquired $3m in Bartercard dollars that was later converted into a cryptocurrency called Qoin.

FTI said Qoin was an “extremely illiquid” asset with sales limited to a few hundreds dollars each day.

“Consequently realising this asset is extremely difficult if not impossible,” FTI said in the report. “To date, our investigations are still in progress.”

FTI said four cash payments were made to Love Your World between June 2021 and September 2021 totalling $531,327.

Mr Harder’s wife Rachel is listed as a director of Love Your World, which remains a registered charity whose constitution states its aims are “to provide for the worship of God, to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to promote Christian fellowship.”

According to financial records lodged with the Australian Charities and Not for Profit Commission, Love Your World reported income of $1.2m in 2019 and general church and ministry expenses of $510,000. It is yet to lodge its most recent financial report.

Rob Harder started life on the tools as a builder’s labourer.

FTI has foreshadowed a public examination in the Federal Court of Mr Harder and other executives of Privium given the dealings uncovered by the liquidator.

They include the transfer of funds between Privium and entities related to the group including Open Gold Capital and The Promise Qld. In June 2019, Privium made a $850,000 special dividend payment to The Promise.

The FTI report, which is lodged with ASIC, states Privium received three payments totalling more than $20m from Open Gold in June 2020 with the same amounts then paid to The Promise on the same day. A $3.86m dividend was then declared to Privium shareholders.

According to the report, Mr Harder had told liquidators that the purpose of the transaction was to raise capital and develop a “digital unit trust” called Open Gold.

FTI also said Privium had likely been trading insolvent since August 2021.

Both Mr and Mrs Harder are members of the Hillsong Church at Mt Gravatt in Brisbane. A spokesman for Hillsong said the entities and Privium had “no connection in any way to Hillsong Church”.

In a video posted on YouTube last year, Mr Harder can be heard extolling the virtues of Kingdom Builders, a fundraising organisation within the church.

Mr Harder is heard on the video explaining that the Covid-19 pandemic had hit the building industry hard.

Attempts to contact Mr Harder on his mobile phone to comment on the issues raised in the report were unsuccessful on Wednesday.