{"id":135125,"date":"2025-11-14T19:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T19:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/135125\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T19:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T19:16:08","slug":"rlits-contracting-ferrari-seized-liquidator-hunts-8-6m-from-failed-firm-amid-family-feud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/135125\/","title":{"rendered":"RLITS Contracting: Ferrari seized, liquidator hunts $8.6m from failed firm amid family feud"},"content":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat he has done to me, my family and others is somewhat of a horror story,\u201d Spencer said.<\/p>\n
RLITS described itself as a construction company that employed 120 staff, typically recruiting from overseas.<\/p>\n
RLITS was on paper directed and owned by Roy and Spencer\u2019s father, Northland-based Raymond Bishop, but he told the Herald earlier this year he was unaware of signing documents incorporating the company and making himself a director.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a number of forged documents which Spencer and I had no knowledge of,\u201d Bishop snr said.<\/p>\n
The liquidator said Raymond Bishop had attended an interview to discuss the company and did not indicate he was being referred for investigation.<\/p>\n
The Official Assignee said RLITS owed a total of $8.6m to creditors, including more than $4m to Inland Revenue. Two associated companies placed into liquidation by the Official Assignee owed a further $1.8m.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of recoveries to date at RLITS came from the seizure and sale of a 2017 Ferrari 488 sports car, which netted $248,500.<\/p>\n
The report said the Official Assignee was also looking into the company\u2019s possible ownership of a 2003 \u201c46-foot [14m] ply construction vessel\u201d, but this was \u201csubject to multiple liens and reported to have condition issues\u201d.<\/p>\n
An early liquidator\u2019s report advised unsecured creditors \u2013 said to be owed $3.4m \u2013 to brace for returns of \u201c0 cents in $\u201d.<\/p>\n
Roy Bishop, 37, has two previous bankruptcies and has twice been convicted for fraud. He is also reported to use the aliases Raymond and Vincent.<\/p>\n
Late last year, Roy told the Herald he was sorry for his business failures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI acknowledge my past and take responsibility for previous mistakes. These experiences have been significant learning moments,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n
Roy is understood to be overseas \u2013 he told the Herald in January he was \u201cin the Middle East working for a drilling firm\u201d \u2013 and even his own family said they did not know where on Earth he was.<\/p>\n
The collapse of RLITS appears to have caused a schism in the Bishop family, with Spencer and Raymond blaming Roy, who they said fled overseas once the company started teetering.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe f**ked up. As for us and the other siblings, we don\u2019t have a brother. That\u2019s brutal, but what he\u2019s done to us is worse,\u201d Spencer told the Herald in January.<\/p>\n
Raymond, asked if he wanted to find and make contact with Roy, said earlier this year: \u201cI mean, he\u2019s still our son, but no.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roy\u2019s email address, active late last year, is now inactive. He could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 including twice being named Reporter of the Year \u2013 and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting from business newspapers and national magazines.<\/p>\n
Listen and subscribe to the Today in Business<\/a> podcast \u2013 the top headlines from the NZ Herald business team summarised and delivered by an artificial intelligence (AI) voice as an easily digestible recap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat he has done to me, my family and others is somewhat of a horror story,\u201d Spencer said.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92484,92480,1554,534,29893,5532,138,49063,33760,17397,58508,12513,2109,3517,10113,1138,71,92479,12898,42583,13102,1132,111,139,69,26693,4227,38538,92478,92483,12641,92481,3235,210,28355,92482],"class_list":["post-135125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-92484","tag-86m","tag-alleged","tag-amid","tag-authorities","tag-boat","tag-business","tag-companys","tag-contracting","tag-creditors","tag-eyeing","tag-failed","tag-family","tag-ferrari","tag-feud","tag-firm","tag-from","tag-hunts","tag-investigation","tag-liquidator","tag-managers","tag-million","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-owed","tag-recruitment","tag-referred","tag-rlits","tag-satisfy","tag-seized","tag-sifting","tag-sold","tag-through","tag-trying","tag-wreckage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}