David Purdy

Michael Gilbert, who was severely criticized by a New Zealand judge in a recent court ruling (see separate story), is part of a reorganization that involves the Imperial Consolidated Group and companies with the prefix 'Alpha'.The firm that he is a director of changed its name from Imperial Consolidated (New Zealand) Ltd. to Alpha Equities Asia-Pacific (NZ) Ltd. on November 29, 2001.

Imperial Consolidated Group founders Lincoln Fraser and Jared Brook have bought a vacant hotel in Morecambe, England that was the primary cause of their financial problems a few years ago. They bought the Midland Hotel through a UK-based firm they control called Kalber Leisure Ltd. for between GBP350,000 and GBP500,000 (US$496,000-US$708,000) on June 11, 2001, according to the local press.

OffshoreAlert's investigation into the Imperial Consolidated Group reached high farce in May when the firm gave a number of Pythonesque answers to questions that we submitted to its UK-based Public Relations firm, Luther Pendragon. Perhaps the most comical response was a claim that it was prevented by UK law from disclosing the qualifications and experience of a 25-year-old man listed as General Manager of Grenada-based Imperium Bank.