Sam Mitchell’s Aqua Ceres sells $21.75m of water to Corrigan

Embattled businessman Sam Mitchell and his partners have sold $21.75 million worth of water from their US-based investment fund. Read all the details.

Embattled WealthCheck boss Sam Mitchell has sold $21.75 million in water entitlements to Kooba Ag.

Embattled businessman Sam Mitchell and partners have sold $21.75 million worth of water from their US-based Aqua Ceres Australia fund.

The sale of 2500 megalitres of high security Murrumbidgee entitlement to Kooba Ag, owned by former Patrick Stevedores boss Chris Corrigan, was listed on the NSW Water Exchange last Friday.

The transfer was made from Aqua Ceres’ water access licence 13687 to Kooba Ag’s WAL 37378 for $8700 a megalitre.

The sale appears to have drained the fund of much of its water, given Mr Mitchell lodged a report with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in July last year stating the Aqua Ceres Australia fund had a gross value of $30.21 million.

Mr Mitchell and Californian investment manager Rodney Parsley first teamed up with Wagga Wagga water broker Tom Wilks in 2021 seeking investors in the Aqua Ceres Australia Water Fund.

The investment teaser issued at the time stated they hoped to raise $75 million to deliver investors an internal rate of return of 15-18 per cent, including an annual distribution yield of 6-9 per cent from leasing.

The teaser also stated they would buy Australian water entitlements, via a “Cayman mini master structure”, which allowed both “non US and US tax exempt investors” to direct their funds through a Cayman Islands’ feeder fund.

But the NSW water register shows that, prior to last week’s sale to Kooba, just 2688 megalitres of Murrumbidgee high-security water entitlements have been transferred onto the Aqua Ceres water access licence since 2021, at a cost of $22.84 million.

It remains unclear how the proceeds of the sale will be used, given US SEC records show 22 investors had invested at least $500,000 each in the fund, of which Mr Mitchell and Mr Parsley are also directors.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission records shows Mr Mitchell’s WealthCheck Funds Management Limited is still listed as the local agent for the fund, despite it being subject to a wind-up order.

Last week The Australian newspaper reported the Australian Taxation Office had won a Federal Court bid to wind up Mr Mitchell’s WealthCheck business, after administrators warned he faced a $6.6m cash call for potential insolvent trading.

Court documents also show at least three companies connected to Mr Mitchell face more than $9 million in unpaid tax claims.

Just what impact WealthCheck’s wind up will have on Aqua Ceres investors remains unclear, with Mr Mitchell having left Australia for the US.

Mr Corrigan did not respond to a request for comment on his company’s water purchase.