This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Police launch fraud investigation into Nant’s barrel buy-back scheme
Police in Tasmania are conducting a criminal investigation into Nant Barrel Holdings’ whisky barrel buy-back investment scheme after “several complaints” from investors.
Tasmania Police is conducting an investigation into Nant’s whisky barrel buy-back investment scheme
The scheme invited investors to purchase two barrels of Nant Tasmanian Highland Single Malt for AU$25,000, with a guaranteed 9.55% annual return. Under the agreement, Nant would then buy the casks back for AU$36,007 after four years of maturation.
However an audit of the business, carried out private equity group Australian Whisky Holdings (AWY) after it announced plans to acquire Nant last October, revealed that more than 700 whisky casks sold under the company’s scheme “have never been filled and don’t exist”.
Others were decanted, bottled and the proceeds sold without barrel investors knowledge, or filled with approximately 45% abv spirit, when the industry standard is 63%. In addition, filling dates had “many” discrepancies, owners’ names had been sanded off some barrels, and other casks were leaking.
A statement on Tasmania Police’s Facebook page reads: “A preliminary assessment of material, which included the examination of associated documentation and ongoing discussions with Australian Whisky Holdings Ltd, the company currently operating the whisky distillery at Nant Estate, Bothwell has been undertaken by members attached to Fraud and e-Crime Investigation Services.
“The preliminary assessment has resulted in a determination having been made that a criminal investigation into the allegations will be conducted. The investigation is expected to take some time.”
After releasing details of the audit, AWY – which completed its acquisition of The Nant Group earlier this month – contacted investors offering to monitor, manage and insure their barrels until maturity, and also published a list of unfilled barrels that do not exist, as well as a list of unfilled barrels with incorrect paperwork.
The group now has “undisputed and outright ownership” of the distillery assets and the Nant Estate, and said that it would focus on resuming the production and marketing of Nant whisky, its continued management of the Nant barrel investment scheme, and the acquisition of whisky from Nant barrel scheme investors.