Cameron Davis is a fraud
David Lykke
proved doesnt work please feel to pass is on to your associates in the
environmental business. They are still paying for it in the USA also
with another scam
http://old.smh.com.au/news/0003/04/national/national19.html
Brothers defend role in failed festival
By GARRY MADDOX, Film Writer
The Noosa Film Festival started elegantly. An opening night in
tropical Queensland at which more than 500 guests mixed with the likes
of patron Gillian Armstrong, president Jack Thompson, chairwoman Kate
Fitzpatrick, board members Jacki Weaver and Kristen Williamson and
stars such as Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward.
But the ambitious attempt to create a major international film
festival last September has turned ugly, degenerating into bitter
recriminations about unpaid debts that centre on the festival's
Sydney-based director, Mr Luke Davis, and his property developer
brother Cameron, who was a major backer of the event.
With liquidation proceedings against The Noosa Film Festival Ltd being
adjourned in Queensland's Supreme Court until later this month, some
key creditors are blaming poor management and unnecessary expenses,
including nightly parties during the event, as reasons for the
financial problems.
Some have even pointed at Cameron Davis, who they say is hugely
wealthy, lives in an expensive house at Watsons Bay and drives a
Porsche, and is allowing the festival to be wound up over $300,000 in
debts.
Luke Davis springs to his brother's defence. "Cameron's not that
wealthy. I've heard those rumours as well. I've had someone tell me
he's worth $20 million. If he was worth $20 million he wouldn't be
taking sandwiches to work. Yes, he's done well in the past, but he's
one of those sorts of people who makes a bit and loses it."
He says that if his brother had the money there is no way he would
subject the two of them - and the festival - to the pressures they
have been under. His brother's house is not worth a fraction of the
rumoured $3 million, he says, and "his Porsche is a very, very old
Porsche".
Cameron Davis, who bought the Watsons Bay house for $975,000 in late
1997, according to official records, also says he is not wealthy "by a
long shot". Those who say otherwise do not know the size of his
mortgage.
As well as being a former director, he is also the festival's single
biggest creditor, he says.
"I had to come to a commercial reality that enough was enough. What
they're saying is, 'Point the finger at Cameron Davis. He can shell
out another $300,000, pay us all out, wouldn't that be fantastic?' and
the poor bastard gets to go down the tube for another $300,000."
The other creditors "put a nail in their own coffin" by starting
liquidation proceedings. "My company and me personally have both
lodged statements of liquidated claim on the company as well so we're
the same as any other creditor."
Six months after the debut festival, the pain is being felt in Sydney
as well as Queensland.
A solicitor for one of the creditors says: "He [Luke Davis] has no
idea of the effect he's had on so many businesses."
Mr David Oliver, from Noosa-based Wordsworth Publishing, has laid off
three of his six staff after non-payment of $31,000 in addition to
sponsoring the festival for $50,000. Sydney publicist Ms Tracey Mair
is owed $28,000. Mr Matt Doherty from Australasian Event Services is
owed $97,000, which he describes as as "amazingly distressing".
The Davis brothers are also feeling the effects. Luke is on "all sorts
of medication" while he continues a last-ditch attempt to find a new
backer for the festival, and has been working part-time in another
brother's furniture restoration business.
He estimates he has lost between $80,000 and $100,000, and that
Cameron "could be in the hole for up to $1 million".
So what went wrong with an event that even many of the creditors still
believe is a good idea? Luke Davis blames the late loss of an airline
sponsorship for a cost blow-out of $300,000. The initial budget of
$1.3 million ultimately reached $1.8 million.
Cameron Davis says expectations were too high in the first year,
sponsors dropped out and ticket sales were disappointing. He defends
the management of the festival. "Logistically it worked brilliantly."
With liquidation proceedings adjourned until March 24, Luke Davis is
negotiating with possible new backers. But his brother seems to regard
the festival as dead.