Michael Pond

British conmen Lincoln Fraser and Jared Brook, who masterminded the $400 million Imperial Consolidated fraud that failed in 2002, are embroiled in yet another international financial scandal involving a group that has done business under several names, including EasyKard, Saphrau, Wharfside, Quatro and G4 Group.

The results of an independent geological survey of 4.5 million acres of land in Argentina to which the Imperial Consolidated Group has mining rights are expected to be known by the end of August. They will go a long way to determining the level of dividend creditors can reasonably expect, said a spokesman for Imperial's UK-based administrator, Mazars Neville Russell.