Bridgecorp Holdings is a former high risk property development group

Business group

A corporate group is a collection of parent and subsidiary corporations that function as a single economic entity through a common source of control. The concept of a group is frequently used in tax law, accounting and company law to attribute the rights and duties of one member of the group to...

 that was operating in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It was placed in receivership

Receivership

In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...

 in July 2007.

History

Bridgecorp Holdings was founded as Bridgevale Mining in New Zealand but changed its name in 1987 when it acquired Toy Warehouse. The company was delisted after the toy company - considered underperforming - was sold in 1992. Rod Petricevic took over operations of Bridgecorp in the same year but failed to relist the company, being rejected by the NZX. In 2002, Bridgecorp was deregistered in New Zealand and moved its headquarters to Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia. Bridgecorp Limited served as a subsidiary for New Zealand while Bridgecorp Finance was established as its Australian arm.

In 2004, Bridgecorp began trading at Unlisted, a New Zealand-based trading facility. In the following three years, the company attracted more than 18,000 investors from both Australia and New Zealand with promised return rates between 9 to 11 percent/year. In August 2006 the company was banned from raising money from existing investors by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission

Australian Securities and Investments Commission

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission is an independent Australian government body that acts as Australia's corporate regulator...

. The Commission had issued warnings of "solvency issues" concerning the group as early as December 2005.

Bankruptcy

Bridgecorp collapsed in 2007 with most of the Bridgeport companies being placed in receivership afterwards. At this time the company owed 14,500 investors A$467 million. Graham Miller of the Covenant Trustee Company was appointed trustee for the group following its collapse.

Rod Petricevic and former chairman Bruce Davidson - as well as three others, Rob Roest, Gary Urwin and Peter Steigrad - were charged in July 2007 after Bridgecorp went into receivership.

Petricevic had sought legal aid to pay for his legal bills, though this has been denied on the grounds that he remains a trustee of a family trust with access to considerable wealth.