Chance Voight collapse: Christchurch property heads to auction as $27.78m investor shortfall emerges

A three-bedroom townhouse on Papanui Road in Christchurch is heading to auction next month, but the property sale is not a routine real estate transaction. It is the first asset being liquidated from the wreckage of Chance Voight Investment Corporation Limited, a Rangiora-based investment scheme that collapsed under the weight of a $27.78 million shortfall to creditors.

The company, founded in 2021 by Bernard Whimp, who has publicly styled himself as "New Zealand's Donald Trump," raised $54.2 million from the public by offering shares and debt securities with promised returns of up to 13 percent. The money was supposed to flow into real estate investments and Australian Securities Exchange-listed shareholdings. Instead, by September 2025, the company had accumulated a negative net asset position of $11.8 million. None of the assets generated meaningful income. The scheme was insolvent.

What made the collapse particularly consequential was who had entrusted their money to Whimp. An interim liquidator's report prepared by PwC and filed with the High Court in January revealed that most investors were aged 65 and over. Many of them, the report concluded, did not fully grasp the risk profile of what they were buying into. They were retirees, in other words, betting their security on promises that never materialized.

The Financial Markets Authority began asking questions about Chance Voight Investment Corporation at the end of 2024 after receiving multiple complaints from investors. A formal investigation followed in September 2025. By January 2026, the FMA had asked the High Court to place the company and five core related entities into liquidation. A month later, 23 additional entities connected to the group were also placed into liquidation after the court determined they were either insolvent or inactive. In total, 29 entities have been wound down.

Teneo Financial Advisory appointed three liquidators—John Fisk, Lara Bennett, and Malcolm Hollis—to recover whatever assets remained. The group's portfolio included 11 residential and commercial properties and vacant sections scattered across Canterbury. The Papanui Road townhouse, a three-bedroom, one-bathroom home designed by architect David Allen, is the first to be offered for sale. It carries a rateable value of $830,000 and last sold in March 2022 for $770,000. The auction is scheduled for October 21.

Whimp's own framing of events offers a window into his mindset as the scheme unraveled. In January 2026, Stuff reported that he had sent an email to staff urging them to return to work. In it, he described himself as being in the "most glorious punch-up" with the FMA and spoke of his "elevation to New Zealand's 'Donald Trump'." The tone suggested defiance or perhaps detachment from the reality facing his investors—elderly New Zealanders who had handed over their retirement savings and were now watching those funds disappear into a liquidation process.

The sale of the Papanui property marks the beginning of a longer asset recovery effort. As liquidators work through the group's holdings, more properties will likely move to auction. For the creditors—primarily the elderly investors who believed they were securing their financial futures—the recovery process will be slow and incomplete. The $27.78 million shortfall means that even if every property sells at or above its rateable value, there will not be enough to make investors whole.