“We have been advised by the company’s accountants that no financial statements were prepared,” the liquidators said.
Liquidators are now working to trace funds and recover what they can for Inland Revenue.
Big flipper
Prakash has previously been named by the Herald as one of New Zealand’s biggest flippers.
His trading network was so prolific it operated its own real estate agency – Hills Real Estate – to help it resell all the homes it bought.
A Herald investigation last year traced just a slice of the network’s activity.
It found 71 homes were bought by Hills-linked traders in 2021 and 2024 for about $54m and onsold for nearly $60m.
The Herald’s reporting first revealed the complex web of property deals and transfers.
Liquidators’ reports have since confirmed intercompany loans, overdrawn shareholder accounts, and freezing orders already placed over Prakash’s personal assets.
They are investigating what they describe as “transactions of interest” and “potential related party transactions” across the network.
At the time of the February 19 court hearings into Hills Real Estate, Teneo liquidator Craig Sanson told the Herald his team would be “following up the books and records of the company and undertaking our investigation”.
The hearing to shut down the two companies was brief, with no representatives of the firms showing up.
Still selling
Prakash remains active in real estate.
Just days before the High Court hearing to shut down Hills Real Estate, the Herald revealed Prakash and 11 Hills staff had quietly joined a separate agency, Wallace Real Estate.
However, following the reports, Wallace said it terminated its relationship with Prakash.
He then surfaced as an agent at Shavin Real Estate in East Tāmaki.
The Real Estate Authority said it was reviewing whether his practising licence should be renewed.
How the deals worked
A Herald analysis of property records last year showed some homes bought by the trading network passed through up to 11 linked companies before reaching an end buyer.
A few of these homes even changed ownership between trading companies up to nine times on the same day.
Critics say the fast-paced property trading drove house prices up.
Two South Auckland first-home buyers told the Herald it had been “heartbreaking” to watch a Hills-linked trader relist homes they tried to buy in 2021 for prices up to $100,000 higher.
Prakash, however, said property trading was high-risk.
His team risked making losses on every deal and he said that his customers were happy. Knowledge of the South Auckland market and moving fast were keys to successful deals, he said.
Earlier court proceedings
In separate court proceedings, liquidators earlier said they had obtained freezing orders over Prakash’s personal assets after investigating the transfer of a property to a related company on the day it went into liquidation.
Additionally, when the court ordered financial records be handed over, the defendants “failed to provide their discovery by the required date”, the liquidators said.
Then when the documents eventually arrived, the liquidators said they “were not satisfied as to the defendants’ discovery”.
Prakash has been approached for comment on the latest liquidators’ reports.