Boss of embattled $45m investment group says liquidators are ‘fundamentally wrong’

Thursday, 19 February 2026

Investment boss Bernard Whimp outside the High Court at Christchurch on Thursday.

A judge says Bernard Whimp and the Financial Market Authority (FMA) cannot both be right, as the investment boss continues to fight liquidation.

Whimp’s Canterbury-based investment operation Chance Voight and five associated entities were placed into interim liquidation in December, following an FMA investigation.

The FMA previously said there was reason to believe the companies, which received around $45m from investors, were insolvent and had breached the Companies Act 1993, and other legislation.

“For me it’s just another D-Day on the Normandy beaches,” Whimp told The Post at the time, later adding the FMA’s actions were “unbelievably heavy-handed and utterly unnecessary”.

Whimp affirmed he believed the interim liquidators were “fundamentally wrong”, at a High Court hearing at Christchurch before Associate Judge Dale Lester on Thursday.

“You both can’t be right,” the judge said.

Bernard Whimp’s position is that the liquidators handling his investment companies are “fundamentally wrong”.

Nonetheless, Whimp continued to fight a permanent liquidation order. He planned to engage counsel before a full hearing on the matter, which could be set down for as late as June.

The FMA told Judge Lester the hearing may take two or three days, but Whimp said this “couldn’t possibly do the issue justice”, as the FMA had raised more than 200 points that needed arguing in its liquidation application.

“A lot of issues hang off this, Your Honour, that we will want to open up and if someone’s asking me how long I would like for this … I would say I would be happy with one month,” Whimp said.

“Well, that’s not going to happen,” Judge Lester replied. “There will not be 200 issues addressed. The fundamental issues here are essentially solvency.”

Another issue raised was the temporary suppression of the interim liquidators’ report, which would also be argued at a separate, sooner date.

Judge Lester said he would issue a minute on Friday to address the next steps.

Whimp declined to comment immediately after the hearing.

On Wednesday, Stuff reported a woman who invested her life savings with Chance Voight alongside her husband cried as she pleaded with Whimp at a private investor meeting.

Whimp assured her Chance Voight had no inkling of any impending investigation when they invested, Stuff said.