A Perth businessman with a taste for classic muscle cars who is alleged to have run a Ponzi scheme and owes hundreds of millions of dollars to investors will have his businesses wound up, under Federal Court orders.The Perth businessman allegedly owes at least $250 million to 132 investorsJustice Neil McKerracher found Chris Marco ran a financial services business without a licence as well as an unregistered investment scheme.
His current assets include a property portfolio as well as a collection of iconic muscle cars each worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, including a 1971 Ford Falcon XY GTHO III, 1972 Chrysler Charger VH E49 and 1972 Holden Torana "Bathurst" LJ GTR XU-1. Mr Marco spent hundreds and thousands of dollars on cars like the 1972 Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1 "Bathurst" sedan.
An interim receivers' report written earlier this year outlined how Mr Marco attracted a diverse bunch of investors to his scheme, including rates of return of up to seven per cent every three months."Some are Mum and Dad-type investors who have potentially lost the majority of their retirement assets while others are more sophisticated investors who are financially less dependent on their potentially lost investments," it said.