SINGAPORE — In what he described as the lowest point in his life, a cyber-security specialist stole a few thousand dollars from a savings account meant for his daughter so that he could keep gambling.

The 35-year-old, who gave only his surname as Sow, peeped to find out his wife’s password for the account under her name. “I stole the money to top up my betting account,” he said.

He had lost at least $500,000 from football matches since getting addicted to illegal gambling sites in his teens and ended up owing both legal and illegal moneylenders.

Still, the father of three young children continued. “I was betting every day — in the toilet, at work and on the bus or train.”

A National Council on Problem Gambling survey of more…

Photo: (American Public Power Association via unsplash)

It is potentially lights out for Aotearoa’s largest solar power company, leaving some customers in limbo.

And the government’s asking questions about more than $100 million that has already gone from its Green Investment Fund to the company.

SolarZero, which provides solar power systems, with no upfront costs but multi-year leases, has been put in liquidation.

Employees have been advised that due to unsustainable operating losses, and liquidity constraints, the business cannot continue to operate.

User advocacy group Rewiring Aotearoa’s chief executive, Mike Casey, said solar remains the future, but the delivery model has moved on.

Casey told Checkpoint the technology…

Te Arawa Management Ltd is a subsidiary of the Rotorua-based Te Arawa Lakes Trust.

Joint liquidators Thomas Rodewald and Paul Manning from BDO Tauranga released their first report on Thursday, which detailed the next steps of the process.

The liquidators will trade the business in the short term while they advertise it for sale, and will arrange asset and stock valuation.

“The company was purchased out of receivership and the shareholders have been putting funds into the business since.

“It is not economic for this to continue and the shareholders resolved to liquidate the company.”

They believed all creditors would be paid in full within a year, if they weren’t already.

January 13 was set as the last…

Administrators are urgently searching for a buyer for S&W Seeds Australia. Photo: S&W Seeds Australia

ADMINISTRATORS are calling for expressions of interest for the sale or recapitalisation of S&W Seeds Australia after the business entered into voluntary administration late last month.

The seed company reportedly owes almost $61 million, including $50M to secured corporate debt financing companies, primarily National Australia Bank, $9.8M to trade creditors and $1.15M of employee leave entitlements.

As of August 7, S&W Seeds has continued to trade with all 56 employees retained.

A subsidiary of United States-based S&W Seeds, S&W Seeds Australia purchases seeds from a network of over 100 Australian growers then,…

The federal court approved an extension of Regional Express (Rex) Airline’s voluntary administration by Ernst & Young (EY) Australia on Thursday 21 November. 

Rex Airlines entered into voluntary administration on 31 July and ceased service between major cities, costing 600 people their jobs and putting regional air service at risk.

The airline found itself in financial difficulty after purchasing a fleet of nine Boeing 737-800s and 57 Saab 340s to compete with Qantas and Virgin Australia, however, that strategy was not as profitable as expected. 

Services to regional cities has remained in place to date, but there are growing fears around the implications for travelers if the airline bows out permanently.

EY requested the…

Troubles have been brewing at KTM for most of 2024, with the company’s financial problems well documented. The Austrian company has laid off a number of staff throughout the year, including many key executives, and only a few weeks ago set off alarm bells in the Swiss stock exchange when it forecast a loss for the year. That caused share prices to plummet to below eight Euros, when they had been at 60 a year earlier. Debt has been reported at 1.5 billion, up from 300 million Euros two years ago.

Now joint Chief Executives Stefan Pierer (pictured above right) and Gottfried Neumeister (left) have placed the company into self-administration, giving them breathing space to try to put a strategy together and avoid the company…

To use this website, cookies must be enabled in your browser. To enable cookies, follow the instructions for your browser below.

Facebook App: Open links in External Browser

There is a specific issue with the Facebook in-app browser intermittently making requests to websites without cookies that had previously been set. This appears to be a defect in the browser which should be addressed soon. The simplest approach to avoid this problem is to continue to use the Facebook app but not use the in-app browser.

This can be done through the following steps:

1. Open the settings menu by clicking the hamburger menu in the top right

2. Choose “App Settings” from the menu

3. Turn on the option “Links Open Externally” (This will use…

Gambling disorder is a psychiatric condition listed among addictive disorders along with alcohol and drug use disorders (1), affecting around 0.5% of the general adult population (2–4). A higher number of individuals are believed to suffer from problem gambling, a problematic gambling pattern which may or may not fulfil diagnostic criteria. Prevalence of problem gambling varies across studies and settings, from below 1% of the adult population, up to around 5% to 6% (5). Gambling-related problems may have severe consequences for the individual, including financial debts (6), suicidal ideation, suicide attempts (7), and an increased risk of completed suicide (8). A recent study demonstrated that problem gambling may lead to…

In a tale weaving through the grandeur of international casinos, Dr. Wong Yew Choy, a Singaporean high-roller, has found himself in a legal entanglement demanding the repayment of a colossal sum of A$38.7 million (S$33.6 million). This debt was amassed during a frenzied week of baccarat gambling from July 26 to August 2, 2018, at The Star Gold Coast Casino in Queensland, Australia. Dr. Wong’s departure from Australia on August 2 without settling his burgeoning debt sparked a cross-continental legal battle with ramifications that have echoed through the gambling and legal communities.

The cascade of legal challenges:

As The Straits Times reports, the origin of this dispute traces back to a security measure taken…