john young and robert hance

http://www.smh.com.au/business/after-the-noughties-party-the-hangover-grinds-on-20100613-y61a.html

John Young

GREAT SOUTHERN John Young, the founder of the agribusiness group Great Southern, has disappeared from the public eye since the company collapsed with more than $800 million in debt in May last year.

The failure left the company's shares worthless and 40,000 investors in its agricultural schemes in limbo. The fallout continues, and last week the receiver McGrathNicol put Great Southern's 269,000 hectares of forestry land on sale.

Young failed to return calls when contacted by BusinessDay last week. A spokeswoman for ASIC said its inquiries into the collapse of Great Southern were continuing, but she declined to comment on Young's role.

Young resigned as a Great Southern director in October, but according to ASIC's records is still a director of various Great Southern subsidiaries that are in administration. These relate to Great Southern's property and olive operations.

He is also listed by the regulator as a director of several other private companies - Jersey Group, Lansdowne Holdings, JSJA Holdings, Latitude Foundation, Latitude Holdings, and West Star Holdings - and is still a director of Australian public company Sylvatech.

A report by Great Southern's administrator, Ferrier Hodgson, recommended investigation of the acquisition for 38 in the dollar of a loan book by a company associated with Young for $9 million.

The report said Young's involvement was disclosed to Great Southern's board, but was not disclosed to shareholders when the announcement of the transaction was made on the ASX on April 8 last year.

Robert Hance

TIMBERCORP Robert Hance, one of the founders of the agribusiness group Timbercorp, has kept a low profile since the company went into administration and receivership last year.

Timbercorp collapsed in April last year owing $903 million, and leaving out to dry 18,400 investors who had sunk more than $1 billion into its schemes in.

The Melbourne-based entrepreneur did not return calls when contacted by BusinessDay last week. A spokeswoman for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said it was still investigating the demise of Timbercorp and declined to comment further.

Hance is a director of Racing Victoria and remains a formal director of more than 100 private companies, many of them associated with Timbercorp, involving almonds, citrus, mangoes, wine, olives and funds management.

Other directorships include Australian Garlic Producers, Australian Gourmet Pastes, a deregistered company Robert Boyd Taxi Trucks, the delisted company Costaexchange and Aurgold.

Hance has blamed the collapse of Timbercorp on a ''perfect storm'' of events. These included adverse High Court tax battles that undermined confidence in managed investment schemes just when the global financial crisis began to hit, coupled with the drought and higher water prices.