Convicted fraudster William Ardrey has been released on bail, 13 months after being sentenced to a four-year jail term, but has lost a bid to gain control of cash from the sale of a New York apartment.
Convicted fraudster William Ardrey has been released on bail, 13 months after being sentenced to a four-year jail term, but has lost a bid to gain control of cash from the sale of a New York apartment.
Ardrey was sentenced in May last year in the District Court after being convicted on 18 fraud-related charges against private biopharmaceutical firm Phoenix Eagle Company.
It emerged this week that Ardrey has recently been released on bail, after providing a bail undertaking and a surety of $5,000 each.
His release was a result of orders made by the Court of Appeal, after Ardrey lodged appeals against his convictions.
In a separate Supreme Court ruling handed down this week, Justice Ken Martin rejected an application by Ardrey to obtain residual funds, amounting to $13,419, from the sale of a New York apartment he once owned.
His application was opposed by Phoenix Eagle, which told the court Ardrey had previously agreed that residual funds were to be held on trust for the purpose of satisfying any further debt owed to the company.
“The specific contractual obligations manifesting under... the settlement agreement are binding and remain in place,” this week’s judgement said.
“Furthermore, as the plaintiff's written submissions once again correctly point out, there is a flawed premise apparent in Dr Ardrey's submission.”
Justice Martin said there was an implicit assumption that Ardrey presently suffers under an obligation to make maintenance payments to his family in the amount of $3,750 per week.
“The plaintiff's submissions correctly identify that there is no such obligation upon Dr Ardrey to render payments, as par 10(a) of the freezing orders is only facultative,’’ he said.
“It, in effect, permits Dr Ardrey to render those payments from any other funds or assets he holds without infringing the freezing orders.”
Justice Martin’s judgement also revealed that Phoenix Eagle has applied for orders requiring Ardrey to fully comply with previous orders to render a full and frank disclosure of his assets and financial dealings.
Phoenix Eagle claims Ardrey has failed to do this, but should be able to do so now that he has been released from Acacia Prison.
Phoenix Eagle has previously foreshadowed civil action against Ardrey, seeking up to $1.84 million in compensation.
Prior to the Phoenix Eagle fraud, Ardrey achieved considerable commercial success.
Having been awarded a doctorate from the University of Western Australia, he was a director of medical technology group CustomVis and later chief executive of listed biotech Regenera.
He was recognised for some of these achievements with a 40under40 award in 2003.
Phoenix's lead product, known as OPAL, is created by the alkalisation of heated paw paw pulp, and is designed to prevent and treat a variety of skin disorders, including rapid healing of tissue damaged by burns and prevention and treatment of sunburn.
In August 2014, the company said it had obtained patents in all of the jurisdictions in which it entered patent applications – the US, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand.
