Perpetual Trustee Company Limited yesterday said it filed a statement of claim in the Supreme Court of NSW against Elderslie Finance Corporation, Australian Integrated Finance and "certain directors", who appear to be Peter George and Andrew Vaughan.
The trustee company did not respond to a request for a copy of the statement of claim. The claim for compensation is for misappropriation of trust monies, according to a media release from Perpetual.
One of the directors targeted, Peter Vaughan, told
The Australian that the claim represented "one half of the trustees fighting the other half".
Perpetual Trustee Company acts as trustee for secured debenture holders of EFC. Perpetual Trustees WA, which acted for a separate group of unit holders, instigated the Federal Court proceedings two months ago that led to the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as receivers.
The Australian reported Hotel Nominees, a company controlled by Peter George, had borrowed $67 million from Elderslie, and the company was unable to repay that money, at the time Elderslie collapsed.
George told the newspaper Perpetual's claim did not involve that loan from Elderslie to his company. He said the claim "is not to do with Hotel Nominees or with directors taking money, it's to do with the priority of payments to investors."