Mayfair 101 Group managing director James Mawhinney intends to appeal a recent Federal Court decision he be restrained for a further 15 years from receiving or soliciting funds in connection with any financial product and advertising, promoting or marketing any financial product.
Justice Button found Mawhinney had a “willingness to adopt a reckless approach to the conduct of a financial services business” and that he gave “no proper consideration of how obligations to investors would be met”, with his only plan being “to raise more and more money from investors”.
“The simple fact is that, in circumstances where the Mayfair Group was in serious financial trouble, Mr Mawhinney made the decision to stop paying investors sums due to them and was prepared to try to get the Mayfair Group out of the hole it was in by raising more money from unsuspecting investors,” Justice Button said.
In response, Mawhinney stated: “I respectfully disagree with the court’s finding that Mayfair’s clients have suffered losses. Our clients made loans which we applied to acquiring underdeveloped real estate and various other assets. The debt obligations still exist and are recognised. We are rebuilding valuable assets to make our clients whole and will not rest until this is achieved. We will be appealing the court’s decision.”
These final orders result in a total injunction period of 20 years for Mawhinney, who has been under interim restraint orders since 13 August 2020 due to Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) proceedings.
On 10 July, the Federal Court determined Mawhinney was associated with, or involved in, legal contraventions by companies in the Mayfair 101 Group following proceedings initiated by ASIC.
But Mawhinney has opposed the various judgments and appealed wherever possible, indicating he has defeated 57 out of 90 ASIC allegations of misleading or deceptive conduct.
He has continually declared that prior to ASIC taking enforcement action, Mayfair 101 clients had been paid principal and interest on time.
Many of his noteholders attended the recent trial, with a group of 76 issuing a statement of support in late July.
