are these people guilty

the Csutoros bought $600 worth of shares or about 200,000 @.03 in brisconnect
they are now liable for $400,000 or two $1 instalments

violet csutoros says this

VIOLET CSUTOROS: We thought that $600, well, if it goes up, we'd get $100 profit or so. If it goes down, well, we'll lose a couple of hundred. It was no big deal.

she maintains that she was just going for the capital gain

I don't believe her.

I reckon they hoped to get the 5c divi for a tenth of cent

you don't anything for nothing and that is what they hoped for.

apparently they may now lose their home

STEVEN CSUTOROS: It's a horrible feeling, you know. You don't know what to do. You're in a bind, you know, you can't do this, you can't do that. And what you worked for all your life, you lose it, and just by a click of a mouse.

VIOLET CSUTOROS: It was overshadowing us at Christmas



from lateline business
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/business/items/200904/s2533735.htm


VIOLET CSUTOROS, UNIT HOLDER: It's unbelievable, really, because you haven't signed a contract, and you haven't done anything, and you would be liable for $400,000. It's quite bizarre.

NEAL WOOLRICH: In October Steven and Violet Csutoros bought 200,000 units in BrisConnection, which is building Brisbane's airport link. At 0.3 cents each, the 200,000 units cost a mere $600.

VIOLET CSUTOROS: We thought that $600, well, if it goes up, we'd get $100 profit or so. If it goes down, well, we'll lose a couple of hundred. It was no big deal.

NEAL WOOLRICH: A few days later a letter arrived saying they owed $1 on each unit this April and another $1 per unit next year, a total bill of $400,000 on their $600 outlay.

VIOLET CSUTOROS: We just looked at this letter, horrified, and we just kept reading and reading and reading it over again.

STEVEN CSUTOROS: We didn't believe it.

VIOLET CSUTOROS: We just couldn't believe it.

NEAL WOOLRICH: An accountant said he could help by transferring the units to an associated company, but that was met with another letter from BrisConnections arguing that the transfer was invalid.

The litigation funder, IMF, is paying for representation on behalf of small shareholders. It argues the product disclosure statement published prior to the lifting of BrisConnections was inadequate.

HUGH MCIERNON, MD, IMF AUSTRALIA: The answer was basically if you don't pay, the units will be sold, and the cost of selling the units will be payable by you. It didn't make it clear, I don't think, and others don't think, that they would have to pay the balance of the instalment in any event.

NEAL WOOLRICH: The Brisbane Airport link saga is now clogging up the courts 1400 kilometres away in Melbourne. And besides the small investors, it's pitting some of the biggest names in corporate Australia, like Macquarie Group and ASX Board member Trevor Roe, against a 26-year-old fund manager, Nicholas Bolton.

ROBERT GOTTLIEBSEN, BUSINESS SPECTATOR: I've been around for 30, 40 years, reporting, and I've never seen anything like this. It was a badly structured company, it was right at the peak of the boom, and Queensland are very fortunate that they got this money.

NEAL WOOLRICH: Mr Boltan's Australian Style Investments owns nearly 20 per cent of the units in Brisbane Connections. The units are almost worthless trading at 0.1 cents each. But the firm is potentially liable for $77 million on each of the two remaining instalment calls.

ROBERT GOTTLIEBSEN: I think this is a very messy exercise and I don't think the communications from anybody, but particularly the company, have been very good at all. This is a project that's been in trouble for a long time and a far greater standard of communication was required, and will certainly be required in the future.

NEAL WOOLRICH: The funding arrangement has left many small investors with potentially crippling debts, and sparked a flood of legal claims.

The Victorian Supreme Court has now confirmed that Australian Style Investments can call two meetings of investors to decide whether to wind up BrisConnections.

One of the project's underwriters, Macquarie Group, is taking its own action in the Queensland Supreme Court, aiming to compel unit holders to meet their instalment obligations, while the other underwriter, Deutsche Bank, doesn't want investors to be forced to pay if BrisConnections is wound up.

The decision to allow the unit holder meeting has now put about $3 billion of finance in doubt as the funding from a syndicate of banks was dependent on unit holders paying their instalments. Macquarie and Deutsche Bank could lose up to $195 million each, but the biggest losers could Queensland citizens and government, who might watch the project unravel.

ROBERT GOTTLIEBSEN: Life could have plenty of twists and it could well be that the biggest losers turn out to be the people that have to pay the calls, the underwriters of the call, particularly Deutsche Bank, and, of course, the foreign banks who have to loan money when they desperately don't want to and it's not well secured at this point.

NEAL WOOLRICH: The confirmation that shareholder meetings will go ahead is a small step forward for investors like Stephen and Violet CSUTOROS. But they still face the very real threat of losing their home.

STEVEN CSUTOROS: It's a horrible feeling, you know. You don't know what to do. You're in a bind, you know, you can't do this, you can't do that. And what you worked for all your life, you lose it, and just by a click of a mouse.

VIOLET CSUTOROS: It was overshadowing us at Christmas.

NEAL WOOLRICH: For now the future of the airport link project and that of its investors and bankers is shrouded in uncertainty. The corporate regulator ASIC has joined the court drama arguing investors weren't clearly informed in the lead-up to investors meetings.

Perhaps the only clear winners will be the lawyers, with the dramas likely to be played out in the courts for weeks and months to come.