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http://www.smh.com.au/news/national...ng-sports-stars/2007/04/01/1175366081053.html
Watchdog's sniff at fuel firm may end up biting sports stars
Gerard Ryle
April 2, 2007
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THE Australian Securities and Investments Commission is inquiring into the controversial fuel technology company Firepower, which markets a brown pill it says reduces fuel consumption and harmful emissions.
The move has the potential to shake the sporting world, with the company's sponsorship money helping to underpin enterprises from the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league team - owned by the actor Russell Crowe and the millionaire businessman Peter Holmes a Court - to V8 Supercar racing.
Firepower is estimated to have raised between $10 million and $100 million from about 1200 investors, including many high-profile sports stars.
But questions have been raised about why there are few places outside Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory where consumers can readily buy the product.
The money was raised in Australia through a Virgin Islands-registered entity. About 200 million shares were offered for between 5 cents and about $1.30 each, with some shareholders told they would be worth up to $7 when the company listed on the Alternative Investment Market in London.
The listing has been postponed several times since March 2006 and shareholders were told at meetings last month that it might be September before they saw audited figures, and longer before a listing.
In February the West Australian Department of Consumer and Employment Protection launched an investigation into Firepower's claims about its fuel-saving pill.
The outcome of an independent test undertaken by the department is not yet known and the company has stated it is co-operating fully with the investigation. The securities and investments commission declined to comment on its inquiries.
A Firepower spokesman said: "We are co-operating with the regulators on a small number of issues and conducting our own due diligence."
Firepower burst onto the sporting scene in November as the new sponsor of the Rabbitohs. That reported $3 million deal was quickly followed by sponsorship of the Sydney Kings basketball team, the Western Force rugby union team, the Tongan national rugby union team, the Porsche Carrera Cup motor sport series, V8 Supercar racing, and the Australian Superbike championship.
The company's money is also reportedly helping five Wallabies prepare for the rugby World Cup.
Ripples from the Firepower tale have reached as far as Romania, where some of the company's products were made, and a multilevel marketing scheme based in New Zealand, which claims to offer the same miracle fuel-saving pill that you pop in your tank when you fill up.
Firepower's Russian joint-venture partner, Grigory Luchansky, won a multimillion-dollar suit against The Times in London over claims he had been involved in one of the world's biggest money-laundering scandals.
The story also touches the Prime Minister, John Howard, and the Governor-General, Michael Jeffery, who met principals of the company at the behest of Austrade, and whose photographs at official functions were then used in company newsletters to investors.
Watchdog's sniff at fuel firm may end up biting sports stars
Gerard Ryle
April 2, 2007
AdvertisementAdvertisement
THE Australian Securities and Investments Commission is inquiring into the controversial fuel technology company Firepower, which markets a brown pill it says reduces fuel consumption and harmful emissions.
The move has the potential to shake the sporting world, with the company's sponsorship money helping to underpin enterprises from the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league team - owned by the actor Russell Crowe and the millionaire businessman Peter Holmes a Court - to V8 Supercar racing.
Firepower is estimated to have raised between $10 million and $100 million from about 1200 investors, including many high-profile sports stars.
But questions have been raised about why there are few places outside Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory where consumers can readily buy the product.
The money was raised in Australia through a Virgin Islands-registered entity. About 200 million shares were offered for between 5 cents and about $1.30 each, with some shareholders told they would be worth up to $7 when the company listed on the Alternative Investment Market in London.
The listing has been postponed several times since March 2006 and shareholders were told at meetings last month that it might be September before they saw audited figures, and longer before a listing.
In February the West Australian Department of Consumer and Employment Protection launched an investigation into Firepower's claims about its fuel-saving pill.
The outcome of an independent test undertaken by the department is not yet known and the company has stated it is co-operating fully with the investigation. The securities and investments commission declined to comment on its inquiries.
A Firepower spokesman said: "We are co-operating with the regulators on a small number of issues and conducting our own due diligence."
Firepower burst onto the sporting scene in November as the new sponsor of the Rabbitohs. That reported $3 million deal was quickly followed by sponsorship of the Sydney Kings basketball team, the Western Force rugby union team, the Tongan national rugby union team, the Porsche Carrera Cup motor sport series, V8 Supercar racing, and the Australian Superbike championship.
The company's money is also reportedly helping five Wallabies prepare for the rugby World Cup.
Ripples from the Firepower tale have reached as far as Romania, where some of the company's products were made, and a multilevel marketing scheme based in New Zealand, which claims to offer the same miracle fuel-saving pill that you pop in your tank when you fill up.
Firepower's Russian joint-venture partner, Grigory Luchansky, won a multimillion-dollar suit against The Times in London over claims he had been involved in one of the world's biggest money-laundering scandals.
The story also touches the Prime Minister, John Howard, and the Governor-General, Michael Jeffery, who met principals of the company at the behest of Austrade, and whose photographs at official functions were then used in company newsletters to investors.
