Aaron Peter Coupe has a flair for self-publicity but this was of no avail as he was bankrupted a second time, this time following a failed hotel development in Auckland’s CBD.
Mr Coupe had high hopes for a proposed joint venture to develop and operate a hotel in Auckland’s Greys Avenue. Funding was expected from US investor Gary Oda, with a hotel management contract inked with Castle Group, a Hawaii-based company. It did not turn out well. A US court has ordered Mr Coupe pay $US 2.07 million damages to his joint venture partner. Mr Coupe disputes the validity of this case. In New Zealand, Bank of New Zealand sold Greys Avenue in a mortgagee sale.
Steps were taken to bankrupt Mr Coupe. Rather than register their US judgment in the New Zealand courts and use this to bankrupt Mr Coupe, his former joint venture partners instead took a cheaper route; relying on unpaid costs orders for some $42,500 Mr Coupe was ordered to pay following unsuccessful action taken in the New Zealand courts. The High Court dismissed Mr Coupe’s claim that these costs have been paid; part of a deal with his former business partners.
He was bankrupted with effect from 11 March 2022. Mr Coupe was previously bankrupted in October 2010.
Coupe v. Remmington; Coupe v. NZ Castle Resorts – High Court (11.03.22)
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