{"id":355634,"date":"2026-03-30T19:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355634\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:10:12","slug":"rickhil-prakashs-hills-real-estate-alleged-debt-now-above-30m-after-two-more-companies-liquidated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355634\/","title":{"rendered":"Rickhil Prakash\u2019s Hills Real Estate alleged debt now above $30m after two more companies liquidated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe have been advised by the company\u2019s accountants that no financial statements were prepared,\u201d the liquidators said.<\/p>\n

Liquidators are now working to trace funds and recover what they can for Inland Revenue.<\/p>\n

Big flipper<\/p>\n

Prakash has previously been named by the Herald as one of New Zealand\u2019s biggest flippers.<\/p>\n

His trading network was so prolific it operated its own real estate agency \u2013 Hills Real Estate \u2013 to help it resell all the homes it bought.<\/p>\n

A Herald investigation last year traced just a slice of the network\u2019s activity.<\/p>\n

It found 71 homes were bought by Hills-linked traders<\/a> in 2021 and 2024 for about $54m and onsold for nearly $60m.<\/p>\n

The Herald\u2019s reporting first revealed the complex web of property deals and transfers.<\/p>\n

Liquidators\u2019 reports have since confirmed intercompany loans, overdrawn shareholder accounts, and freezing orders already placed over Prakash\u2019s personal assets.<\/p>\n

They are investigating what they describe as \u201ctransactions of interest\u201d and \u201cpotential related party transactions\u201d across the network.<\/p>\n

At the time of the February 19 court hearings into Hills Real Estate, Teneo liquidator Craig Sanson told the Herald his team would be \u201cfollowing up the books and records of the company and undertaking our investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The hearing to shut down the two companies was brief, with no representatives of the firms showing up.<\/p>\n

Still selling<\/p>\n

Prakash remains active in real estate.<\/p>\n

Just days before the High Court hearing to shut down Hills Real Estate, the Herald revealed Prakash and 11 Hills staff<\/a> had quietly joined a separate agency, Wallace Real Estate.<\/p>\n

However, following the reports, Wallace said it terminated its relationship with Prakash.<\/p>\n

He then surfaced as an agent at Shavin Real Estate in East T\u0101maki.<\/p>\n

The Real Estate Authority said it was reviewing whether his practising licence should be renewed.<\/p>\n

How the deals worked<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

A few of these homes even changed ownership between trading companies up to nine times on the same day.<\/p>\n

Critics say the fast-paced property trading drove house prices up.<\/p>\n

Two South Auckland first-home buyers told the Herald it had been \u201cheartbreaking\u201d to watch a Hills-linked trader relist homes they tried to buy in 2021 for prices up to $100,000 higher.<\/p>\n

Prakash, however, said property trading was high-risk.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Earlier court proceedings<\/p>\n

In separate court proceedings, liquidators earlier said they had obtained freezing orders over Prakash\u2019s personal assets after investigating the transfer of a property to a related company on the day it went into liquidation.<\/p>\n

Additionally, when the court ordered financial records be handed over, the defendants \u201cfailed to provide their discovery by the required date\u201d, the liquidators said.<\/p>\n

Then when the documents eventually arrived, the liquidators said they \u201cwere not satisfied as to the defendants\u2019 discovery\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prakash has been approached for comment on the latest liquidators\u2019 reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe have been advised by the company\u2019s accountants that no financial statements were prepared,\u201d the liquidators said. Liquidators…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[112052,21045,2840,74,1554,3952,682,489,42503,8556,5399,638,72124,14724,21520,12618,12624,1132,130,3805,111,139,425,69,10521,4517,31531,188012,188013,6115,8213,159073,10117,213,7496,1237,2743],"class_list":["post-355634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-30m","tag-above","tag-across","tag-after","tag-alleged","tag-aucklands","tag-being","tag-books","tag-collapsed","tag-companies","tag-debt","tag-estate","tag-flipping","tag-further","tag-hills","tag-liquidated","tag-liquidators","tag-million","tag-more","tag-network","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-now","tag-nz","tag-opening","tag-past","tag-pile","tag-prakashs","tag-pursued","tag-real","tag-recorded","tag-rickhil","tag-shot","tag-sports","tag-tax","tag-two","tag-unpaid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355634","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=355634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}