Ken Wikeley failed in his attempt to avoid contempt of court charges and bankruptcy, seeking a court-brokered deal. He is seemingly left as the fall guy in a fraudulent transaction allegedly cooked up by entrepreneur Eric Watson and apparently designed to siphon funds from Sir Owen Glenn’s Kea Investments.
Kea Investments Ltd has launched litigation in three different countries to unwind what New Zealand courts ruled was a fraudulently obtained US court order by Wikeley’s family trust after a Kentucky court ordered Kea pay USD123 million, supposedly for breach of contract. No such debt is owed, New Zealand courts ruled.
The presence of Eric Watson lurks in the background, with allegations he engineered the fraud.
In separate litigation, in the United Kingdom, Mr Watson is strongly resisting payment of GBP129 million an England court ordered he pay Sir Owen.
Currently, Mr Wikeley has lost control of his family trust, now in the hands of interim liquidators. He faces contempt of court charges filed in Queensland and is threatened with bankruptcy for non-payment of court-ordered costs. His Australian passport has been impounded, preventing travel.
Desperate to extricate himself from this legal morass, Mr Wikeley asked the High Court in New Zealand to convene a judicial settlement conference to approve a possible settlement.
High Court rules allow litigants to negotiate an out of court settlement presided over by a judge. This can short-cut both court-scheduling delays and expensive drawn-out court hearings.
Judicial settlement conferences are not common. By the time a dispute is ready for trial, both sides are at daggers drawn; compromise is unlikely.
Justice Gault refused to order a judicial settlement conference.
Kea Investments was not interested. It is looking to enforce current court rulings against Mr Wikeley.
The High Court was told Mr Wikeley is offering to have the fraudulent Kentucky court ruling overturned, saving Kea the expense of proving in a US court all the facts already heard by a New Zealand court; this support in return for Kea Investments abandoning all current litigation against him personally.
The fraudulent Kentucky litigation was not taken in the name of Mr Wikeley personally; it is in the name of his Wikeley Family Trust. This Trust was not part of the proposed judicial settlement conference. Mr Wikeley no longer controls his family trust. It would not be bound by any promises he made to have the Kentucky court ruling overturned, Justice Gault said.
Kea Investments Ltd v. Wikeley – High Court (17.11.25)
26.009