Brenton Strauss: Whites Hill’s trail of debt

A VICTORIAN trucking firm claims it is owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by Whites Hill (SA), the new company managed by Murray Bridge grain trader Brenton Strauss.

Heavy losses: One trucking operator says he lost about $200,000 when Sapphire collapsed.

A VICTORIAN trucking firm claims it is owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by Whites Hill (SA), the new company managed by Murray Bridge grain trader Brenton Strauss.

Whites Hill (SA) was set up to trade grain one week prior to one of Mr Strauss’s other companies, Sapphire (SA), being placed in administration in March, 2014, after incurring debts of about $13 million.

Sapphire (SA) traded in Victoria, NSW and Queensland as River City Grain Co. and in South Australia as RiverCity Grain Co.

The trucking firm’s operator, who did not wish to be named, alleges his company lost about $200,000 when Sapphire collapsed in 2014 but began working for Whites Hill (SA) when Mr Strauss convinced him the new company was financial.

He alleged the new company was 12-14 months behind in payment. “And I am told I am not the only one (owed money),” he said.

The truck operator said portable offices at Whites Hill/River City Grain’s base on a property at Murray Bridge had been removed.

He said River City Grain’s grain trader had finished working for the business about two months ago.

In other developments:

SAPPHIRE administrator Tony Matthews, of Anthony Matthews & Associates, identified a $2.26 million claim against National Australia Bank as an alleged unfair preferential payment made to the bank.

The claim was not pursued due to unanswered questions of law and the likelihood of an appeal being bogged down in the courts if there was an adverse finding against NAB.

MR STRAUSS paid $50,000 to settle a $400,000 wind-up claim against Crazy Lace (SA), the owner of the Nhill Bulk Handling site in western Victoria. The move allowed Mr Strauss to continue running the NBH site rather than have it sold by the administrator.

MR STRAUSS transferred assets valued at $200,000 from Diamond (SA) to another company he owned just weeks before Mr Matthews moved to take control of them. Mr Strauss then offered $100,000 to buy back Diamond.

MR MATTHEWS took court action to retrieve $625,000 owed to Sapphire by another Strauss company, Bren Lynn (SA), but the claim was settled when the administrator accepted an offer of $40,000 after the creditors committee agreed to settlement.

OWNERSHIP of four other companies in the Strauss network — Amethyst (SA), Topaz (SA), Landline (SA) and Onyx (SA) — were transferred to another man in November last year. The Weekly Times has not been able to determine the other man’s relationship to Brenton Strauss.

Brenton Strauss remains sole director of all four companies.

Mr Matthews began wind-up action against Crazy Lace (SA), Bren Lynn (SA), Diamond (SA) and another related company, Emerald (SA), to recoup about $1.5 million either owed to or written off by Sapphire in the 18 months before Sapphire collapsed in 2014.

The assets of Diamond have emerged as a key factor in the quest by creditors of Sapphire (SA), who have been pursuing Mr Strauss.

Minutes of a creditors’ meeting on June 14 last year show Mr Matthews was looking to acquire Mr Strauss’s shareholding in Laverton grain packer Grainpac held by Diamond.

But on July 29, last year, the Grainpac shareholding was transferred to Sunstone (SA), another Strauss company that held his self-managed superannuation fund.

On September 8, the liquidator of Sapphire applied to the courts to wind up Diamond.

Mr Strauss has made an offer of $100,000 to settle claims against Diamond — possibly about half what it was worth two months earlier when it held the Grainpac shares.

Creditors committee spokesman Stuart Ellis, a Burrumbeet farmer, said the committee reluctantly agreed to accept the $100,000 offer.

The Weekly Times is not suggesting there was any legal restriction on transferring any assets.

Mr Strauss would not comment when contacted by The Weekly Times.

Mr Matthews was unavailable for comment.