“He’s just trying to make me a scapegoat.”
The woman said she had acrimoniously separated from Singh two years ago and now lived in Australia.
She claims the property in question had been purchased from him by her personally, and had been subsequently sold for a loss.
“What rubbish is he talking about? He had no right to that property,” she said.
She also disputed the reasons Singh gave liquidators for his company’s failure.
She claims Yasmine’s tax issues started building in 2021, but worsened in the years following because of overly-rapid expansion and the failure of her ex-husband’s property investments.
“He bought too many properties, too many trucks.”
She said Yasmine, and Singh personally, had also been facing claims in the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) brought by her alleging she was owed six years of wages from working for her husband’s businesses.
Another company subject to her claims in the ERA – beauty spa operator Gyako Wellness – was also liquidated by Singh with administrators’ reports declaring that company had no assets available to satisfy $35,288 owed to creditors.
Submissions to the ERA from Singh reject her claims and seek their dismissal, arguing they have been filed too late and are vexatious antagonism in the context of a marital breakdown.
Questions to Singh – texts, voice messages and emails – from the Herald did not receive a response. Queries to the lawyer acting for him in ERA proceedings also went unanswered.
Documents seen by the Herald suggest an investigation meeting has been scheduled for October.
The ex-wife said she had written to Reynolds, the liquidator of Yasmine, asking him to correct his report.
Reynolds’ first report listed Yasmine’s only assets identified so far for recovery was $676,671 due from related-party current accounts.
As recently as October 2024, the property security register recorded Yasmine Holdings as having borrowings from creditors and listed nine heavy trucks as collateral.
The Bank of New Zealand and Heartland Bank are listed as creditors whose advances are secured over Yasmine Holdings’ vehicles.
Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism – including twice being named Reporter of the Year – and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting for business newspapers and national magazines.
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