FMA warns potential Bernard Whimp or Chance Voight investors to ‘fully inform themselves’
Monday, 22 December 2025
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has recommended investors in Rangiora-based investment company Chance Voight “fully inform” themselves before providing further funds to Bernard Whimp or “any Chance Voight-related person or entity”.
The move comes as suppression has lifted on the High Court’s reasons for appointing interim liquidators for Chance Voight Investment Corporation Limited and placing a number of related companies into liquidation.
The court found an “absence of proper records” made it difficult to say if the companies were solvent.
Founder Bernard Whimp hit out at the FMA in a statement to The Post.
“We think that the FMA's actions in relation to Chance Voight have been unbelievably heavy handed and utterly unnecessary,” he said.
The FMA’s statement on Monday was issued after Whimp emailed investors asking for donations to fund legal expenses, according to the FMA.
FMA head of enforcement Margot Gatland urged investors to speak with the interim liquidators, and seek independent advice from a lawyer or a financial adviser, before donating money.
The FMA asked the High Court to place Chance Voight Investment Corporation, and a number of related companies into liquidation, and the court appointed Malcolm Hollis, John Fisk and Lara Bennett interim liquidators to Chance Voight Investment Corporation and several related companies on December 10.
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On Monday, FMA circulated a redacted version of the High Court in Christchurch’s decision.
Gatland said the FMA applied to the court because there was reason to believe Chance Voight Investment Corporation and several related companies may be insolvent. Whimp denies this.
The FMA said it also had reason to believe the affairs of the group may have been conducted in a manner that breached provisions of the Companies Act 1993, and that Chance Voight group companies and their director, Whimp, may have breached the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 and other financial markets legislation.
In his decision, Justice Dale Lester said there was “an urgent necessity to introduce independent management of the companies in order to provide assurances as to their management, and to prevent the dissipation of funds to which investors and other creditors of the Group may seek to have recourse”.
Justice Lester gave interim liquidators the power to act to maintain the assets owned or managed by the defendant companies, and to investigate them, and provide an initial report to the court, to be copied to the FMA, before 5pm, on January 26.
The FMA told the court that before seeking orders it corresponded with Whimp regarding various aspects of the Chance Voight business over a number of months and had issued Chance Voight with four compulsory information request notices under section 25 of the Financial Markets Authority Act 2011.
Among other things, the notices sought accounting and financial records.
“The FMA was not satisfied with the responses to those notices,” Gatland said.
Justice Lester’s decision showed the FMA told the court it did not have evidence of insolvency, but argued “the Court may liquidate a company based on alternative evidence of insolvency”.
A chartered accountant referred to as Mr McCloy, who was an expert in insolvency, had been unable to arrive at a conclusion as to the solvency of Chance Voight Investment Corporation and the debt issuing entities, however he told the court he was left with serious concerns about the solvency of each of the entities in the Group as a whole.
Justice Lester recorded: “It also appears that the operation of the Group has been carried out with little regard to separate legal personality. According to the information that has been provided by Mr Whimp, the companies have used a single bank account for all Group transactions since November 2024.”
Justice Lester said it appeared the proceeds of investments into the debt issuing entities had been “pooled” in Chance Voight Investment Corporation.
Justice Lester said the FMA’s review of the records it has obtained is that the “overwhelming” source of receipts for the Group were deposits from the Group’s solicitor’s trust account.
“From Mr Whimp’s statements to the FMA, it indicates these amounts are all, or nearly all, investor deposits. These amounts total $45,300,000. The rate of investment has increased substantially in the calendar year 2025 with $29,000,000 of the $45,000,000 deposited this calendar year,” Lester said.
“However, there is little evidence of other sources of income for the Group,” Lester said.
“The factor that I consider most significant in this application is that the Group appears to be dependent on issuing new debt securities to raise cash to meet redemption and interest payment obligations on existing debt securities,” Lester said.
In the calendar year 2026, deposits totalling $21,920,000 were due to mature, representing some 57% of the $38,200,000 of funds under management.
Lester said: “Mr McCloy concludes that the only way in which the Group could be solvent is if there are significant unrecorded inward cashflows or assets not referred to in the information provided. He considers this to be most unlikely given the review of the accounts undertaken by another deponent for the FMA.”
In a long written statement to The Post, Whimp said: “I always expected that the FMA would talk to me about their concerns but they never have. I have no doubt at all that I can explain any Chance Voight transaction and that all transactions at Chance Voight were conducted in the ordinary and reasonable course of business at all times.
“What is going on here is that FMA have been running their own ‘behind the scenes’ investigation with insufficient information and no explanations from me and I do not think it is possible that FMA can understand Chance Voight without talking to me,” he said.
“FMA have gone off on their own tangent, uninformed in many ways and come to the conclusion that one plus one equals three. I do not think this is good enough for the FMA because there is potential in their misunderstandings for investors to suffer enormous damage. I think FMA could do far better.”
He said: “Now that this has happened I am keen for the investigation to run its course. I do not have any doubt at all that the FMA's concerns will prove to be unwarranted. I am happy at any time to answer any queries from the FMA and very much look forward to doing so.
“In my view… the FMA have completely ‘lost the plot’ here and done enormous damage to a thriving enterprising business. I am looking forward in January to all the parties involved developing a much clearer view of Chance Voight and the business it has built.
“I refute completely any ideas of insolvency and certainly our internal numbers do not suggest any such thing. Chance Voight has a reputation since inception for paying all investors on time and in full. No investor has ever lost a cent with Chance Voight.”
The Court will hear the FMA’s liquidation application at a date to be confirmed.