Silvermoon Park developer George Hunter says William Yan is no longer a shareholder in a North Shore development whose long line of financiers now includes NBR Rich Listers the Chow brothers.

“I am the 100% owner of Marmande Property Investment,” Mr Hunter says. “I told Mr Yan if I made a profit I would give him 20% of it. That’s it.”

Mr Hunter’s comments follow news this week that Mr Yan had struck a $42.85 million settlement with police over crimes alleged to have been committed in China.

Mr Yan and his wife had their assets frozen in August 2014, with restraining orders on various properties associated with the couple. It is unclear whether Silvermoon Park, previously known as Albany Heights Villas, formed part of the asset forfeiture.

Yesterday Xianpeng Song resigned as the only other Marmande director. Two days earlier he had become a director of LY Investment (No 1), a company that belonged to Mr Yan’s wife Wei You, which at one time held the first mortgage over the Silvermoon property then called Albany Heights.

Wei You resigned as a director of LY Investment on August 19 10 days after Chen Qui was also appointed a director.  LY Investment’s shares are held by FH Holdings, whose directors are Sze Man Stella Chan, Huei Min Lim and Christina Tan.

John and Michael Chow’s Inno Capital has a $50 million prioritisation over the two hectare 117-unit development, which is nearly finished, with just 21 of the units still to sell before stage two kicks off.

Inno director Clint Webber says when law firm Russell McVeagh did due diligence on the property and second mortgage held by Ikon Building Co-operation, it didn’t find any current links with Mr Yan, also known as Citizen Yan, Bill Liu, Yang Liu and Yong Ming Yan.

Mr Webber says Inno has a confidential, long-term financing arrangement with Marmande for Silvermoon Park.

Citizen Yan connection
Mr Yan’s links with the property started when his wife Wei You jointly bought the first stage of Albany Heights development in 2012 with businessman Craig Thorburn through 125 Gills Road Limited Partnership while another company he was associated with, LY Investment, acquired the first mortgage after the previous owner Hunter Gills Road went into voluntary liquidation.

During the money laundering inquiry into Mr Yan’s activities and High Court action over the restraining of his assets, police revealed investigations suggested Mr Yan had provided funds for the purchase of the Albany property when it was sold to Marmande.

Mr Yan denied he was ever associated with Marmande, apart from doing a few sales for the development and being reimbursed for company business but a High Court judgment painted a different picture, saying police investigations suggested Mr Yan effectively bought the property from himself when he provided the funds for the mortgagee sale to Marmande.

The property has had a chequered history with a number of financiers including Spinnaker Capital, part-owned by NBR Rich Lister Adrian Burr and Auckland financier Martyn Reesby, NBR Rich Lister John Copson, former bankrupt Queenstown developer Rod Nielsen, and theRich List  Manson family’s New Zealand Mortgages and Securities.

It was originally promoted overseas by former Strategic Finance director Paul Bublitz and developer Chris Cook through an elaborate First Right of Refusal scheme to mainly Hong Kong investors.

Mr Bublitz hired the former swindling US stockbroker Jordan Belfort, known as the Wolf of Wall Street – a successful movie of the same name about Mr Belfort’s life was made – to spruik presentations.

About 110 investors lost at least $18 million.

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