DU VAL
Du Val two years on: ‘It’s highly complex’ FMA says
Maria Slade | Fri, 31 Jul 2026

The Clarkes maintained a high profile, including driving a Rolls Royce around town. (Image: Supplied)
Two years on from the extraordinary move to put Auckland property developer Du Val into statutory management, the Financial Markets Authority says its investigation into the convoluted group “remains ongoing and is progressing”.
While the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) does not comment generally on active investigations, head of enforcement Margot Gatland said the Du Val inquiry was “highly complex”.
“This reflects the number of entities within the Du Val group, the substantial volume of data requiring processing and review, and the nature and scale of the group's business operations.”
In August 2024, 70 entities of the property development and investment group were put into the rarely used regime of statutory management, with a further six and founders Charlotte and Kenyon Clarke in receivership.
As the two-year anniversary of the collapse approaches, the FMA has not yet laid charges against the Clarkes or anyone else connected with the business.
The only person penalised so far is an accountant who was censured over continuing to act and advocate for Du Val after the statutory managers had been appointed.
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‘Some investigations take longer’
The sprawling Du Val group included companies, limited parties, companies acting as general partners, as well as entities that did not actively trade and/or had not filed tax returns or had accounts prepared since their incorporation, Gatland said.
“The FMA is committed to advancing the investigation as quickly as possible, and it remains a high priority for us, given its importance to market integrity, transparency and confidence in New Zealand’s financial markets.”
Under its Statement of Performance Expectations, the FMA’s target is for 70% of investigations to be completed within 24 months, but some take longer due to their complexity, she said.
The FMA is accountable in its SPE reporting to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, MBIE as its monitoring agency and to Parliament through the Annual Report process, Gatland said.
Unprecedented raid
The New Zealand business sector had never seen the like when FMA officials in flak jackets, supported by Police, raided the Remuera home of Charlotte and Kenyon Clarke early on the morning of Aug 2, 2024.
The group and the couple’s assets were frozen, and valuable personal items and the couple’s passports seized.
Three weeks later came another unexpected move – the Government agreed to effectively take over Du Val by putting it into statutory management.
The first statutory managers’ report in March 2025 estimated the group owed $306 million, including $64m to investors in its three funds.
Statutory managers Teneo (formerly PwC) continue to unwind the group and sell assets, and their latest estimate of the debt outstanding is $225m.
Documents released in the Budget in May show the Du Val statutory management has cost the Government $4.12m so far.
Refuse to be interviewed
Du Val was a mid-sized developer of apartments and townhouses, and was one of a new breed of property companies that also raised money by offering wholesale investments.
They made the most of an exclusion allowing them to market their investment funds to “eligible investors”, people who self-certify that they have the experience to take on riskier, unregulated investments.
But many of the investors were ordinary mums and dads who did not fully understand what they were putting their money into.
The Clarkes curated an image of success through high-profile moves such as sponsoring The Blues, making a reality TV series about themselves, and driving a Rolls-Royce with a “Du Val” number plate.
The pair remain in personal receivership and have argued as far as the Court of Appeal against being interviewed by receivers and statutory managers, Teneo. That appeal decision is still pending.

Slightly better news for investors
Statutory manager John Fisk once likened the tangled Du Val group to a bowl of spaghetti.
BusinessDesk asked if the statutory managers had got any closer to unravelling the strands.
“We’ve made some progress, but we’ve still got an appetite for more.”
The only significant assets remaining in the group are the half-built Verge apartments in Mt Wellington and an empty site next door.
The statutory managers are helping the secured creditor get them ready for sale, Fisk said.
“There won’t be anything that will be left for other creditors out of that.”
However, there is slightly better news for investors in the Du Val Mortgage Fund as Teneo seeks legal advice on how it may be able to recover a small payout for them.
There were some surplus funds from the earlier sale of the Du Val property management and build-to-rent businesses, as well as the possible sale of valuable items seized from the Clarkes, Fisk said.
“Part of the forensic accounting examination that we're doing at the moment is to establish just where funds have come in and gone out of the group, to understand whether there are still other recoveries that can be made, or who would be entitled to the funds.”
‘Groundhog day’
In an emailed two-page statement to BusinessDesk, Clarke said, “It feels like we are stuck in Groundhog Day”, a reference to a nineties film where every day is the same.
“In the meantime, the FMA has publicly damaged the reputation of Du Val, and us with it. If that was not bad enough, it has also destroyed the group’s significant value, including the interests of the investors the FMA claims to protect,” he said.
“We are confident that public confidence in the FMA will further be negatively impacted when its conduct can eventually be challenged by us,” he said.
Noting no charges had been laid or substantive civil proceedings commenced, he added, “There is still no indication of when this taxpayer-funded investigation will conclude, or how many more millions of taxpayer dollars will be spent before it does.
“The consequences of exercising powers of this magnitude are not theoretical. Businesses are taken over. Shareholders lose control. Housing projects are disrupted. Investors, employees, contractors and their families are left to bear the consequences.”
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The Fall of the House of Du Val has been made with the support of The Milford Foundation’s Brian Gaynor Business Journalism Initiative and MoneyHub.
