AIMS Property Securities Fund circular investment fraud

AIMS Property Securities Fund (APW.AX), formerly MacarthurCook Property Securities, is a loss-making property fund flagrantly committing fraud by making circular "investments" with related funds. Dual listed on the ASX and SGX, the fund holds a purported $37m in unlisted property funds that it values at will, and a further $18m in listed property funds. The fund consistently burns around half the cash generated by its assets, and so given these ongoing costs its fair value to a non-controlling investor would be around 50% of NTA. If APW truly traded in a free market, where a multitude of buyers and sellers made transactions without the intention or ability to affect the price, it would trade at 50% of NTA. The criminal operators of this fund has attempted to ramp the price up towards NTA with buybacks and related party purchases. So naturally, APW follows the familiar pattern of long-term shareholder value destruction interspersed with sharp ramps to benefit insiders.

The latest half-yearly report for APW shows how the fund has "invested" $3.5m in the related MacarthurCook Office Property Trust. The report also discloses how the MacarthurCook Office Property Trust has "invested" $2.5m in APW. Because of this circular "investing", these related funds report NTAs fraudulently inflated by several million dollars, with this fraud constituting a significant proportion of their reported assets. This circular investment charade is criminal, regardless of regulator incompetence. APW also holds 49.9% of AIMS Property Fund (St Kilda Road), while related party AIMS Capital Management Limited holds 27.8% of APW. Seen as a whole, APW is a criminal enterprise, a circular investment scam that plans to issue units to victim investors based on a purposefully inflated balance sheet and performance.

AIMS Property Securities Fraud recently won a long running lawsuit against P-REIT (PXT.AX), currently managed by equally criminal BlackWall Property Fund. Just like APW, BlackWall funds circularly "invest" in each other and perform accounting fraud, as seen in the latest PXT half-yearly report. The lawsuit related to rights of withdrawal and redemption, as APW had been issued units with the promise of par redemption. With the judgment for $15.4m plus costs, one set of criminal managers has been ordered to hand over shareholder funds to another set of criminal managers. There were no small shareholder winners.