ISG director hit with 10-year ban as ASIC probe into $145m collapse continues

The director of the failed $145 million ISG Group, which liquidators say destroyed records and falsified documents, has been banned from providing financial services for ten years.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) banned Ben Godfrey from 31 March, and Australian Property Investor Magazine can report he has not appealed the decision within the 28-day timeframe.

Under the ban, Mr Godfrey is prevented from providing financial services businesses or “performing any function involved in the carrying on of a financial services business” for ten years.

ISG Group, which raised around $145 million from 1,600 investors since 2019, was swept into receivership in September 2024.

It was founded in 2014 by Mr Godfrey and Maree Hawcroft, according to its since-deleted website, which says it “invested” in property projects and small-to-medium sized businesses.

Mr Godfrey was entitled to apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal for “a review of ASIC’s decision,” an ASIC spokesperson told API Magazine.

“Ordinarily, applications for review must be made within 28 days of the day after the reasons for the decision is served,” the spokesperson said.

“To ASIC’s knowledge, Mr Godfrey has not yet lodged any appeal from the decision.”

Investigations by ASIC, which has taken no criminal action against Mr Godfrey or any other person in relation to ISG Group, were ongoing, the spokesperson said.

An ASIC-funded investigation by ISG’s liquidators, Olvera Advisors, was also ongoing.

“ASIC’s investigation in relation to the affairs of ACN 114 733 569 Limited [in liq] [formerly known as ISG Financial Services Limited] remains ongoing and is independent to the work being undertaken by its liquidators,” ASIC noted.

Last year Olvera reported it had “identified instances of destruction of books and records” and “falsifying documentation”, about which it had notified ASIC.

As reported by API Magazine in January, ASIC subsequently gave Olvera $609,675 from its “Assetless Administration Fund”, which funds investigations by liquidators into companies with “few or no assets”.

Olvera is due to provide the findings of those investigations to ASIC by 31 August.

The liquidator has previously reported that ISG was likely trading while insolvent since September 2022.

Investor wants criminal justice

Geoff Goldlab invested his and his late mother’s superannuation in “various schemes” of ISG. He said he was pleased ASIC had banned Mr Godfrey for ten years, but wanted to see more action.

“I hope ASIC find him (Mr Godfrey) guilty of criminal behaviour and send him to jail,” Mr Goldlab told API Magazine.

He said ASIC should definitely be judiciously granting funds to liquidators like Olvera, “if there is a level of confidence that more information can be found by the liquidators”.

“For two years Ben Godfrey led investors down the path of hope,” Mr Goldlab said.

“We needed to believe what he was saying with regards to investors retrieving their capital. 

“At no stage in those two years did Godfrey offer any explanation as to where the $145 million had been spent.

“That question was asked repeatedly but never answered,” he said.

Flashy lifestyles provoke anger

In issuing the 10-year ban, ASIC said Mr Godfrey had “failed to comply with financial services laws”; was “involved in the contravention of a financial services law by another person”; and was “not a fit and proper person to provide financial services”.

Further, Mr Godfrey was “not adequately trained or competent” to “provide financial services”, or to “control an entity that carries on a financial services business”, the regulator said.

Mr Godfrey and Ms Hawcroft have drawn particular ire from investors over their own high-rolling and flashy lifestyles.

Three Mercedes Benz motor vehicles, including a $195,500 GLC63S AMG Coupe, and a $90,400 GLC43 AMG, were repossessed by Olvera.

Repeated attempts by API Magazine to contact Mr Godfrey and Ms Hawcroft were unsuccessful.

In its latest report to ISG investors, issued in January, liquidator Olvera said it may make an additional funding request to ASIC “for the purposes of conducting public examinations under Part 5.9 of the Corporations Act”.

Olvera Advisors principal and ISG liquidator Tony Wright did not respond when asked whether he had made such an application to ASIC, and if so, if it had been successful.

The ASIC spokesperson declined to comment, stating such applications were confidential.