It seems to pay to take chances with other people’s money — Craig Gore is a perfect example of that. The former bankrupt rebuilt his fortune in the 2000s through “something akin to a Ponzi scheme” (according to the liquidator of his company) and lived a life of glamour, owning a V8 Supercar team and, by 2007, accumulating a $180 million fortune according to BRW magazine. But with that fortune now gone, Gore is proposing to enter into a deal with creditors to pay them less than one percent of monies owed.

Along with MFS’ Michael King, and City Pacific’s Phil Sullivan, the descent for Gore was rapid. In April last year, it was City Pacific which ironically “placed three Gore companies — Atkinson Gore Group, Atkinson Gore Agricultural, and AGG Treetops — into receivership after the companies defaulted on loans of $145 million”.

Gore, whose father, Mike Gore, was one of Queensland’s original ‘white shoe brigade’ in the 1980s, is now desperately attempting to avoid a second personal bankruptcy by offering a deal to creditors. (Mike, who developed Sanctuary Cove, fled Australia for Canada in the late 1992 after his property empire collapsed. Gore Senior left $45 million debts and Sanctuary Cove spent years in receivership).

The scheme, outlined by Max Prentice of BPS Recovery, proposes that 91 of Craig Gore’s creditors will accept only $3 million of the $480 million which is owed to them — as well as a 30% interest in a new company to be managed by Gore. The deal appears to be a good one for the younger Gore, who would be paying creditors a fraction of what is owed to them despite possible facing civil or even criminal claims for a range of offences including failure to prevent a company from trading while insolvent, unreasonable related party transactions, breaches of their directors’ duties and potential breaches of the Trade Practices Act.

Gore’s predicament is a far cry from his high-flying life before the global financial crisis. Before the collapse of his funds management and financial advisory group, Gore’s WPS Supercar team was flying, although the businessman claimed modestly: “…racing cars is secondary to our primary focus which is building the brand and the business of [Wright Patten Shakespeare].” Gore has also planned to undertake an $800 million property development at Saddleback Mountain near Canungra and even had his own personal helicopter (although it seems Gore forgot to pay his helicopter pilot, who was forced to take legal action to recover monies owed, with Gore eventually settling out of court).

It also appears that despite the relative meagre offer to creditors, Gore isn’t completely without resources. He still appears to have sufficient funds to bring legal action against his former builder, Ivan McFayden, who accused Gore on Today Tonight of being “untrustworthy”, “dishonest”, “a habitual liar” and had “a history of defrauding hundreds of people”. Gore is also bringing a legal claim against his former pilot and YouTube, for posting the Today Tonight video.

The Australian reported that Gore, who is currently being investigated for a number of breaches of the Corporations Act, alleged that “his character, reputation and profession as a property developer had suffered because of the program and the falsity of [Mr McFadyen’s] imputations”. One suspects that creditors, who stand to receive less than one cent for every dollar owed, may claim that his character and reputation as a property developer may have already been somewhat damaged by multiple business collapses and the allegation that he was running a Ponzi scheme.