Apartment towers tumble because Kingdom linked them together

The company, which had owned a property in Gladstone Avenue, Wollongong until the lender took it back and sold it in December last year.

That was effectively the first of the projects to fall over.

Now, Kingdom has 13 projects under external administration, with a number of others sold off by lenders seeking their money and lenders, investors and others pursuing both the company and directors through the courts.

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Several investors have raised concerns that separate projects were cross-collateralised, with either equity for one used to get a loan for another, or companies owed money for one development placing a caveat on another to ensure they get paid.

Developers will often create a separate company for each project, insulating them from any fallout should a separate project fail.

Director Andrew Bodnar has confirmed that separate projects were linked, making the company fall faster.

"The way it was all linked that I was the same director of all of it," Mr Bodnar said.

"So the lenders have cross collateralisation because of that. That's another mistake that I made.

"I should have gotten more people that I trusted to take the risk as well as me rather than me taking on the responsibility of $140 million.

"I should have had multiple borrowers to put up the same collateral and risk and responsibility as me."

However, Mr Bodnar has recently taken even more responsibility, removing co-director Samuel Hamrosi's name from some projects and replacing it with his own, in the hope the latter can avoid bankruptcy and rebuild.

Mr Bodnar said his other mistakes included taking on too many projects and battling with councils for approval rather than selling the property.

"I've made plenty of poor choices along the way but I haven't made choices for greed or personal gain," he said.

"I'm happy to wear that, I'm happy to show that and disclose all of that and I will fight through to restore my reputation for what I have done wrong.

"I'll be able to recover, however many years that takes and you'll be able to write about that in the future too."

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