Blue Chip directors, auditors hit with $40m claim

Unfinished Blue Chip apartments

Meltzer Mason Heath, the insolvency firm liquidating a number of Blue Chip Group companies, has filed a statement of claim in the High Court at Auckland alleging Blue Chip had a flawed business model that led to its collapse.

The claim relates to about 800 investors and focuses on the period to 2006 and beyond, when Blue Chip sold apartments off plans for developments in a number of locations in Auckland's CBD.

And the liquidators have said there could be further legal action as the process of unravelling the web of Blue Chip dealings continues.

Jeff Meltzer of Meltzer Mason Heath said, "It's taken some time to effectively analyse the considerable data underpinning a series of complex Blue Chip investor agreements and sub-agreements written during the relevant period.  Blue Chip had many variations of the agreements."