On 14 March 2024 a company called Ameribuild Ltd was put into liquidation – that was two days after its two owners appeared in the Hutt Valley District Court on dishonesty charges.  And three days after irate creditors managed to convince the Police that it was a criminal matter as opposed to civil – just in time to prevent them from fleeing the country.
The boys appeared in court again this morning and Judge Nicola Wills continued interim name suppression, but not for the company – this is why we’ve named the company but blurred the owners’ faces.
One of the charges laid is Obtaining by Deception (Section 240, Crimes Act 1961). The liquidator’s first report dated 21 March indicates a shortfall of $3.03 million, and that’s just one week after the liquidator was appointed so we expect that figure to rise significantly.
Ameribuild Ltd appears to have been a sole New Zealand agent of an American uPVC double glazed window supplier. Â It was incorporated in January 2020. Â If the company had succumbed to competitive pressures and bad debts, we would have expected the liquidator to be reporting a six-figure shortfall.Â
But it didn’t.
As we mentioned, the owners were planning to be back in the US a few weeks ago, but because the Court ordered them to surrender their passports, it looks like they’ll hanging around the beautiful Hutt Valley a while longer.
Their next court appearance is on 7 May.
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See also: Picking up the pieces in Lower Hutt - by Huia Peachey (29 April)
