A scam is but an investment with comprehensive management fees

US Masters Residential Property Fund (URF.AX) is a scam run by Dixon Advisory. The fund claims to invest in high-yielding American property, purportedly using collected rental income to pay steady high dividends to granny investors. In reality, URF is a ponzi that pays its dividends out of capital raisings. The operators of this scheme manipulate URF's share price while gutting the fund with various hidden fees and related party transactions. URF's half-year report for the six months to June 2013 brazenly describes ongoing securities fraud.

http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20130828/pdf/42hzwfpnj35qh0.pdf

In the six months to June 2013, URF had investment property rental income of $4.4m, with rental expenses of $2.5m, for net rental income of $1.9m. From this $1.9m income, the scheme operators charged fees exceeding $10m:

• Dixon  is entitled to an annual Responsible Entity Fee of 0.55% of the fund's gross asset value, charging $460,958 in HY13.
• Dixon is entitled to an annual Investment Management Fee of 2% of the fund's gross asset value, charging $1,057,751 in HY13.
• Dixon is entitled to a Leasing Fee of 3 months gross rent on new leases, charging $499,987 in HY13.
• Dixon  is entitled to an Asset Acquisition Fee of 1.99% of the purchase price of assets acquired, charging $1,816,728 in HY13.
• Dixon is entitled to a Structuring and Handling Fee of 2% of total funds raised, charging $2,947,774 in HY13.
• Dixon is entitled to a Debt Arranging Fee of 2% of the gross amount of borrowings obtained, charging $614,872 in HY13.
• Dixon is entitled to on-charge "administrative expenses", charging $3,042,028 in HY13.

These are but a subset of the fees charged by Dixon and related parties. Of these $10.4m in fees, only $1.7m was recognized as management fees in the profit & loss statement, with the rest obscured by fraudulent accounting and deceptively hidden in report footnotes. URF also paid out distributions to unitholders totalling $10.4m. All this was made possible by issuing shares worth $74m. What has just been described is not a viable business plan, it is a ponzi.

If URF shares were to trade freely they would have collapsed in value. Instead, Dixon and accomplices completely control URF's share price, and have ramped the price above reported NTA. URF does not trade at a "market" price, its price is fixed by the scheme operators. ASIC refuses to take any action, instead protecting the criminals. According to ASIC, the URF ramp is a magical market mystery, and not fraud. Dixon would never have been able to commit its crimes if not for the facilitation and legitimization from ASIC, its most valuable partner.

On 28 August 2013 a partner at Deloitte signed off on URF's half-year report, thereby becoming an accomplice to Dixon's securities fraud. From the accounts the auditor would have been perfectly aware of the fraudulence of the scheme, or should have been in any case, yet the scum still signed off on it. The partner did this safe in the knowledge he will never face prosecution for his role in this scam, never have to face any consequences for his crime.