Please Help, I’m Desperate
Hi Scott,
In one of your recent newspaper columns you exposed the Tasmanian whisky operator Nant Distilling Company, warning your readers to steer clear of them. I was not so lucky. I have $15,000 invested with Nant, and I am finding it all but impossible to get them to honour their ‘buy back’ promise, even though I have abided by the agreement. I have rung the company at least 20 times. I even had an email from an operations manager agreeing to pay me out, but he has since left the company, so I am back to square one. Is there anything you can do?
Fraser
Hi Fraser,
What can I do?
Well, I’ve warned investors (and retired cricketer Matthew Hayden, who was spruiking for them) just how horrible I believe this business is. Seriously, an investment in Nant is much the same as a teenager’s first binge-drinking experiment with whisky -- In both cases you’re likely to end up shivering in a dunny, covered in vomit.
Sadly, I don’t think you’ll get any help from the regulators either. Reason being, when I was investigating Nant they were at pains to point out that they weren’t marketing an investment product -- which would see them regulated by ASIC, the corporate cops. Instead they argued that they are simply selling whisky.
Yet here’s Nant’s pitch to SMSF investors taken directly from their website: “Our unique barrel buy-back program offers you an equivalent return of 9.55% compounded annually, paid when you sell your barrel back to Nant after four years maturation.”
So what happens if Nant decides not to buy back the barrels?
Well, you’ll get … nant!The worst thing about Nant is that they’re still flogging their investments -- sorry, whisky barrels -- to unsuspecting investors, even though it appears they’re not paying out existing investors like you.
Seriously, though, I called Nant on your behalf, and they assure me that ‘everything is fine’, and that you’ll get your money back, in a few months. Perhaps. Maybe. Depending on the maturation process (and testing) of your whisky.
Scott
