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November 30, 2019 By subbiesu Leave a Comment

Ralan Group collapse: William O’Dwyer used $1.7M of Ralan funds to buy cryptocurrency, administrators say

Failed developer William O’Dwyer – who built the Ruby tower in Surfers Paradise – used funds from the collapsed Ralan Group to buy cryptocurrency.

Alister Thomson, Business Editor, Gold Coast Bulletin Subscriber only|November 30, 2019 12:00am

FAILED developer William O’Dwyer – who built the Ruby tower in Surfers Paradise – used $1.7 million of funds from the collapsed Ralan Group to buy cryptocurrency, according to administrators.

The information, along with an allegation of insolvent trading since 2014, is contained in a report into the collapse of Ralan Group by administrators Grant Thornton released on Thursday.

Ralan Group’s 58 companies went into administration in July owing more than $500 million to creditors and employees.

According to the report, Mr O’Dwyer told administrators the group failed because the builder for the second and third Ruby towers in Surfers Paradise had increased its quotes by $96 million and $100 million respectively.

William O'Dwyer used Ralan funds to pay for Bitcoin. Picture: Regi Varghese
William O'Dwyer used Ralan funds to pay for Bitcoin. Picture: Regi Varghese

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Due to this, the financier for the second, third and four stages of Ruby withdrew and Ralan did not have enough working capital to meet its liabilities.

Mr O’Dwyer is said to have placed his companies in administration in the belief that it would buy him time to secure alternative funding.

However, administrators say it was an “unsustainable business model” that relied upon a “partial Ponzi scheme” that led to its failure.

The Ponzi scheme relates to apartment buyers releasing their deposits to be used by Ralan on the promise of 15 to 20 per cent interest to be paid or deducted from the balance on settlement. These deposits were used to pay for the settlement of other unrelated Ralan developments.

Just one of the towers planned by Ralan was completed – Ruby in Surfers Paradise.
Just one of the towers planned by Ralan was completed – Ruby in Surfers Paradise.

Administrators say they found evidence that Mr O’Dwyer breached multiple sections of the Corporations Act and that the Ralan Group manipulated financial records provided to its bankers in order to conceal the deposits it owed buyers.

Mr O’Dwyer’s purchase of $1.7 million worth of Bitcoin is singled out as a voidable transaction – a payment made when the company was insolvent. He bought the Bitcoin in 2017 and 2018 from money taken out of the bank account of Ralan Property Services Pty Ltd and put the Bitcoin in his own name.

Administrators have issued Mr O’Dwyer with a demand to repay $19 million he took from the Ralan Group between 2016 and June 30 this year.

Read more here

Filed Under: Media Reports

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ABOUT US

SubbiesUnited is not “anti builder”, we support strong builders.
We are “anti theft” of hard working subbies money.

It’s not just about the builders who go broke, businesses all over Australia Liquidate every day for a variety of reasons.

It’s about the ones that engage in calculated criminal behaviour such as providing false information to the regulators or inducing subbies to work on a site when they know they cannot or are not going to pay them because of a fraudulent scheme. Its about the participation of the banks, pre insolvency advisors and builder appointed Liquidators to fraudulently defeat creditors.

Liquidators should always be appointed by creditors to ensure a thorough investigation takes place.

We want the rogues investigated and prosecuted for fraud so our goal is to pressure the Queensland Government to set up a fully funded Police Task Force to investigate and prosecute Construction Industry fraud.


  • SubbiesUnited was created to provide subbies with collaborative information on building companies that are showing signs of insolvency or struggling to pay their creditors. The signs are always there, we just need to get the message to each other before it happens.
  • We provide subbies with up to date news on builders in Administration or Liquidation and the best strategies to get a return.
  • There are some extremely litigious builders out there who would rather sue you than pay you. Often they sue you so they don’t have to pay you. We will expose them.
  • The construction industry is renowned for building companies setting up illegal Phoenix operations, shifting assets, then liquidating sending subbies broke. We work with other subcontractor & supplier organisations & Governments to stop what amounts to legalised theft on a massive scale though pre packaged liquidations. Insolvency is used as a means to defraud Subbies.
  • Our aim is to limit the financial damage before it happens with our “members only forum”, an early warning system for the benefit of all our members.

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