BFCSA Blog

Mr Shipton,   At what stage in your life did your conscience take leave? How do you sleep at night? And do you have enough room at your house to accommodate ALL Stirling New Life tenants/investors that have lost everything and are facing homelessness?   Surely elderly people left in such an abhorrent circumstance is something you find unforgiveable and as a human being would take necessary steps to rectify immediately! It is apparent taking action and doing the right thing is a foreign concept to the ASIC but today would be a good time to start!   My parents worked hard their entire lives, paid their taxes, abided by laws, treated people with respect and decency, and at retirement age face homelessness and ruin, a situation which was avoidable had the ASIC done its job correctly! My parents are intelligent people who would not involve themselves in a scheme had...

Dear Mr Shipton The collapse of the STERLING LIFE GROUP-a failure of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. We are victims of the collapse of the STIRLING LIFE GROUP. Since the collapse of the Stirling Life Group we find ourselves in a dire situation with our entire life savings plundered, and now face being homeless in the near future. It is too frightening to contemplate!  My wife has a medical condition known as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). It requires that she undergo regular visits to a Rheumatologist, Cardiologist, Neurologist and Ophthalmologist, and the need for continuous use of medications to balance her condition. Since the collapse of Stirling Life she has endured frequent ‘flare-up’ of her condition, and blood pressure elevation due to stress and worry. Now with our life savings gone we are very worried that we are not able to find the money to assist her condition.    The...

Dear Mr James Shipton,  (ex Goldman Sachs)   The Collapse of the STERLING LIFE GROUP - A Failure of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission and a lack of action to warn consumers, and not shutting  down this operation and allowing more people to become victims.   This is an urgent demand for compensation from ASIC of $26 million within 8 weeks due to what we believe was a regulatory negligence which resulted in my myself along with another 100 retirees losing their life savings to a company which ASIC already knew would likely fail. Such was the nature of the company setup the failure will also mean that rents will not be paid and all 101 of us will most certainly be issued with breach notices and asked to vacate our premises. As a result our money is gone, where we live is untenable and we are all over 65....

Chairman of ASIC   RE:  STERLING NEW LIFE –    We are writing to you in regards as victims of Sterling New Life.  We had numerous phone calls and emails from ASIC via Michael Darch . In all speaking and emails Michael assured us our money was safe and in trust.  This was a blatant lie.  ASIC was aware that the company was Going under as far back as 2015.   Why did ASIC not act as soon as they were aware of the problems thus leaving all of us victims involved broke and in many Cases homeless.  ASIC was not doing their job and just swept it under the carpet just hoping that the problem would go away.  All the allocated funding you receive a Year to ensure that dealings like this are thoroughly investigated especially when you were aware that Ray and Ryan Jones , Simon Bell had been in...

23 June 2019   Mr James Shipton Chairman of Australian Securities and Investments Commission 120 Collins Street MELBOURNE  VIC  3000   Dear Mr Shipton I am writing to you on behalf of my father, who was duped into the scam investment of the now defunct Sterling Life Group by way of signing up to a 40-year rental lease (which I found out recently is a sub-lease) on the property he currently resides.  My father is 83 years of age and lost his wife, my step-mother, just a few months back.  Therefore, not only is he grieving over the loss of his wife of 30+ years, but on top of that, has now been placed in a massively stressful financial situation which is taking its toll on his health, having total uncertainty, financially and residentially, as to his future. I will expect that you, as Head of ASIC, will read this letter...

The collapse of Sterling Life Group – Failure of ASIC to warn potential clients of the likelihood of failure.   Dear Mr James Shipton, Further to the support and correspondence from Denise Brailey – President of BFCSA (Inc) Banking and Finance Consumers Support Association dated 25th June 2019. I wish to explain the situation, I and 100 extra retirees and pensioners face, and the events leading up to my accepting a property with Sterling Life lease.  The pain and struggle is real.  We are not numbers but real people who have lost their life savings, and potentially the roof over our heads, through no fault of our own. I am a 77yr old widow and realised my family home and yard was too big for me to maintain, so I began weighing up the options of moving into a retirement village or a suitable alternative. It was in November 2016, where...

Dear Mr Shipton   Collapse of Sterling First Group   We bought a life lease on an apartment in Maylands in September, 2018 which cost us a total of 280,000.00.  In May, 2019 the company apparently went into voluntary administration and is now being liquidated. We understand that ASIC had already stopped Sterling selling a certain product by June, 2018 which was about 4 months before we entered into this arrangement; they apparently tried to revamp their system and sold us another product.  If we had known that ASIC had been investigating the Sterling Life Group we would not have entered into a life lease. Within 7 months we had lost all the money we put into the Sterling Group. ASIC was aware of the problems with Sterling First, but they never intervened and stopped ordinary hard working Australians entering into what we think was a dodgy deal. This has had...

  Dear Mr Shipton       RE: “Investment” in collapsed Sterling First Group of companies. ASIC negligence -Sterling First under ASIC investigations kept quiet.     I am a single mother of 2, 58 years old, who migrated to Australia in 1984 and worked, paid taxes all these years in this country.   In 2016 I came across Sterling First offer of investments in their various propositions and schemes. At that time, having lost work after 30+ years with the same firm, I was looking for a new job with not much luck, was vulnerable and desperately wanted to improve my cash flow. My house was nearly paid off and I had access to equity. After numerous meetings and familiarising myself with presented documents on the company’s position, I have decided to use my equity money to invest. That was supposed to be only for a short term until I...

Dear Mr Shipton,                                                                                                                27/6/2019 I am one of the pensioners that has lost everything through the Stirling First collapse. As the chairman of ASIC can you explain to me how you could let Stirling carry on selling their lies and deceit? ASIC have been investigating Stirling since late 2016 but had not said a word. Alarm bells must have been ringing. I have lost $315000 plus $10000 which was supposed to be shares that were to be listed on the ASX. That never eventuated. What where you officers do during this time. Sitting on their hands. Really Mr Shipton with the resources and power ASIC have at their disposal scams like these should be stopped from ever seeing the light of day. ASIC to me seem like a toothless tiger. At 69 it is too late to start over again. Thank God we have Denise Brailey on our side. Mr Shipton...

Dear Mr Shipton   I would like to draw your attention to the debacle named Stirling New Life, (STIRLING NEW NIGHTMARE) comes to mind and would be more appropriate.  In 2017, a time when I suffered 3 heart attacks, we decided to downsize and find a more secure home where we could spend our remaining years in comfort safe with the knowledge that if I died first my wife would be in a safe place, at ease and comfortable.  We engaged several real estate agents to help us, however, the model shown to us by Stirling New Life where we were able to choose from a number of homes,  appealed to us because it allowed us to do a long term lease and retain our money in a trust fund which pooled with other lease holders paid all the rent and rates etc; We didn’t go into this blindly, as we...

Dear Mr Shipton   Re: The Sterling Life Group collapse   I am writing to you to express my anger, disappointment pain and suffering that has been brought about by the collapse of the Sterling Group and the abysmal failure of ASIC to protect consumers and their hard-earned assets.   My husband and I paid for a 40-year Sterling New Life lease in October 2017 expecting to see out our remaining years in a very secure unit in Mandurah. We thought that this money was placed in a trust but now it appears that it was more of a Ponzi scheme. We also invested $75,000 in units in late 2018 which were supposedly going to be listed on the ASX within weeks. This never happened and again Ponzi scheme springs to mind. We have worked hard all our lives and just wanted to enjoy our retirement with a few simple pleasures...

Mr Shipton We are a couple in our retirement years who are now facing the prospect of homelessness and financial ruin. With trust we placed our life savings into Sterling NewLife via Silverlink investments. The situation we are now in was avoidable had ASIC done their job properly having been given notice and failing to act on our behalf and allowing ourselves and many others to invest as late as 2018. We have worked our entire life, paid our taxes and lived within the law of the land. Due to the negligence of ASIC we are in this unacceptable and horrendous situation which has caused us such stress that we have had to seek medical advice. We are facing homelessness for placing our faith and  trust in the protection we should of been given by ASIC, Therefore ASIC must be held accountable and rectify their failure to do the job correctly....

Dear Mr Shipton The Collapse of the STERLING LIFE GROUP - A Failure of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. We are requesting to be compensated for the loss of our $210.000 paid into the Sterling Investment Trust in 2016. Since this debacle started we have found out from THETA (the trust managers) that this was never set up as a trust rather an investment fund operating very near to a PONZI scheme. There are over 100 retirees who have been left penniless and liable to be issued with eviction notices. Where can we go? We have worked all our lives and brought up children to believe in fair play and respect to others. Sterling have not given us this. So we are demanding that $26 million within 8 weeks as compensation, occurring. My faith in this Government has been destroyed. The words Australian Securities and Investment Commission does not do...

Mr James Shipton Chairman of ASIC Melbourne VIC      Dear Sir, Myself and my wife have been caught up in the Sterling New Life collapse. We purchased a lease to secure our housing needs for the remainder of our life. We did not enter into this arrangement lightly and we did our due diligence. The first thing I did was to go into the ASIC web site to see if there were any red flags. There was only one reference to Sterling which according to ASIC was only a minor breach. Also in Sterling’s disclosure document the following was stipulated. 1. All monies will be invested in low risk securities ( capital preservation is the first priority)   2. All investments will be monitored by a trustee 3. 20% of all monies will kept aside as liquid cash None of this happened.   ASIC investigated Sterling In 2015 as concerns...

Dear Mr Shipton, The Collapse of the STERLING LIFE GROUP - A Failure of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, This is an urgent demand for compensation from ASIC of $26 million within 8 weeks due to what we believe was a regulatory negligence which resulted in my wife and myself along with another 100 retirees losing their life savings to a company which ASIC already knew would likely fail. Such was the nature of the company setup the failure will also mean that rents will not be paid and all 101 of us will most certainly be issued with breach notices and asked to vacate or issued eviction notices. Sir, our money is gone, where we live is untenable and we are all over 65, I am not sure if you are aware but this means that it is extremely difficult to attain employment at such an advanced age and...

Dear Mr Shipton,   My wife and I are victims of the Sterling First Group financial collapse.  I am writing this to express in the strongest possible terms our astonishment at ASIC’s lack of inaction in this matter and in the knowledge that ASIC was concerned about the product Sterling First were selling to vulnerable pensioners like us as early as 2015, but more importantly had commenced an investigation into the Sterling First Life Lease product and kept silent about it. Whilst ASIC as the nation’s regulator can’t be responsible for Sterling First’s collapse it is and has been responsible for not taking appropriate action to stop the Sterling First Group from selling the Life Lease products that did not meet the regulator’s (ASIC) requirements, ASIC as the government’s regulator had a responsibility to act to protect vulnerable people like us from entering into a financial arrangement with a group of...

Re – Sterling First Group Collapse & ASIC’s Negligence   Dear Mr Shipton,   My husband and I are victims of the Sterling First Group financial collapse.   My husband wrote to you recently in relation to the Sterling First Group’s collapse in particular how ASIC’s utter neglect resulted in us entering into a Life Lease arrangement with Sterling First Group at a time that ASIC were fully aware that the Sterling First Group were under investigation by ASIC.   I am writing to you not to repeat what my husband has already said but to let you know the significant impact this has had on us and our family, emotionally/physically and financially.   We have a large family – 5 children and 13 grandchildren all living within 2km of us and it was for this reason that we moved from Morley WA (30km from where we now reside) and entered...

Dear Mr Shipton   I cannot and still do not believe that You sat on your Hands (ass) still to this day and have done nothing to publicly explain of your 4 year regulatory negligence in the matter of $26 million missing from us personally knowing what has transpired thru Sterling Life Group.  I Demand that you return our monies and everyone else involved in this tragic matter. The Heartache as well as our deteriorating health has been unspeakable. Our money is gone taken by the Theta the trust managers and was never ever set up and operating instead as a Ponzi scheme.  We Hold Ray and Ryan Jones fully responsible for this debacle and ASIC for allowing this scheme to continue when they knew there were issues.   We are now being faced with eviction from our home that we have worked all our lives and have spend receipts have...

Dear Mr Shipton, I write to you as a leaseholder caught up in this Sterling New Life grand theft, larceny call it what you will.  It is the theft of monies amounting to $26 million from retirees and pensioners by thieves and con men namely Ray and Ryan Jones and Company, amongst those millions $140,000 of my money which amounted to my entire life savings. I have nothing left out of all my savings over the last 50 working years of my working life. At 68 and still working you can imagine the crippling impact this has had on my wifes and mine life. We are facing eviction from the modest 2 bedroom apartment that we have called home for over a year and I have nothing to show for the past 50 years of my working life, because it has all been stolen by Ray and Ryan Jones and Company...

26th June 2019 Chairman of ASIC On 16th April 2018, following due diligence, my wife and I signed a 40 year lease worth $254,000 through a Silverlink Investment Plan with Sterling New Life. Little did we know that SNL operations had been under ASIC investigation for some time. Had we known this we would not have proceeded. ASIC failed in its duty of care to the consumer. We hold ASIC responsible for the loss of most of our savings and for the modestly safe retirement we were seeking to secure. We are seeking redress for ourselves and the many others who were similarly negligently deceived while it was ASIC’s duty of care to act and prevent the continuing scandalous behaviour of the SNL directrors. We believe redress should include urgent compensation in full of all monies invested and lost in the Sterling New Life companies.  They represent the hard earned life...