It has been said Cairns is progressive but this has been kept quiet which is very unusual for any media outlet that reports on article like this.
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As reported in the Courier Mail Business section
Business City Beat: King gets back on the horse
ANTHONY MARX
THE COURIER MAIL
JUNE 04, 2014
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| Michael King |
HAS failed Gold Coast businessman Michael King been secretly working behind the scenes as a key consultant on the proposed $8 billion Aquis mega-resort for Cairns?
City Beat spies report that King – who presided over the $2.5 billion collapse of the MFS tourism and finance group in 2008 – got involved through his association with Robert Bryett, a former Aquis executive.
Hong Kong billionaire Tony Fung, who has just scored a green light for his Aquis casino licence, is understood to have wanted to keep King’s role quiet.
No wonder. King is among five former executives at MFS (later renamed Octaviar) defending allegations of corporate wrongdoing brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. ASIC alleges the group misappropriated $147.5 million from its Premium Income Fund and reallocated the money through multiple entities in an effort to pay debts in late 2007 and early 2008. False and backdated documents were allegedly used to justify the transactions.
King and the others face fines of $200,000 per breach and bans on managing corporations if found guilty in the on-going trial, which started last year. Neither King nor an Aquis spokesman returned calls yesterday.
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Fungs reply:
As reported in The Cairns Post
Thursday July 17, 2014
Fungs back appointment od former MFS executive and Gold Coast businessman Michael King As Aquis project manager
THE Fung family has defended the employment of a fallen Gold Coast businessman as its Aquis project manager.
Michael King has been employed by Hong Kong billionaire Tony Fung as his project manager for the  |
| Michael King |
Mr King is the co-founder of the MFS tourism and finance group, which collapsed in early 2008 owing about $2.5 billion.
The former Gold Coast lawyer is among five former executives at MFS (later renamed Octavian) defending allegations of corporate wrongdoing brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Mr King, however, has disputed he was the top man with the power to control the company’s finances. The Supreme Court trial for the matter has been ongoing, to be heard again next month in Brisbane.
Mr King has represented Aquis twice this week at business forums, speaking about the benefits of the development to the Far North and the rest of the state.
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| Justin Fung |
“Michael is a project manager who has helped us gain access to networks in Australia,’’ he said. “We’ve found him to be extremely effective and a good character.”
Yesterday’s forum, organised by the Cairns Chamber of Commerce and Advance Cairns, attracted about 150 representatives from the local business community.
The forum was hosted at the Reef Hotel Casino, which Mr Fung has proposed to take over. The acquisition is the subject of an Australian Competition and Consumer Com-mission review, following concerns that one person could control two casinos in one city.
Mr King told the forum, that for his employer, the Reef Casino takeover was about preparation and training for Aquis.
“Imagine opening up your business absolutely cold in five years’ time, without having any start-up, without having any training facility, without having any business development facility,’’ he said.
“Imagine that the capital you had invested in your new business was $4 billion and you had to start to get an adequate return ... from day one.
“The acquisition of Reef is about Mr Fung being in a position to train staff to develop appropriate service standards, to start to bring VIP customers to Cairns, to start to market the name of the brand in China and elsewhere ... to ensure when Aquis opens, it hits the ground running.”
Cairns Chamber of Commerce CEO Deb Hancock said Aquis would attract an entirely different demographic to Yorkeys Knob compared to the Reef Casino.
“When we’re looking at the scale of the beds, the minimum bets are going to be those that go on in Macau – this is the calibre of the operation we’re going to see at Aquis,’’ she said.
The forum also heard from Flanagan Consulting Group’s Pat Flanagan, who provided an in-depth rundown of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the development.
Mr Flanagan assured the gathering extra steps would be taken to protect resort guests from crocodiles and biting insects, which have been identified as major health hazards.
“The edges of the lake will be vertical, one – to stop any particularly gymnastic crocodiles leaping out of the place,’’ he said.
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