Where has STA Travel clients’ money gone?

By Nick Truebridge of RNZ

The amount owed to creditors of the failed travel group STA has skyrocketed to more than $ 10 million, and customers say there is little chance of recovering their hard-earned money.

Almost a month after the business closed, Deloitte managers are still trying to figure out where the money owed to New Zealand travelers has gone.

Meanwhile, the former head of the company’s New Zealand division says he too is a victim of its downfall.

In September, Bridie Chetwin-Kelly was supposed to be planning her dream trip to the United States.

She was never able to make that trip due to Covid-19 outages. Instead, she received a credit for more than $ 3000 from STA Travel NZ.

But with the company’s decline to voluntary management, those credits are now useless.

“The credit made everything okay, and now we have nothing … What did I waste all this time working for these flights? It’s super disturbing. I’m devastated,” she told RNZ Checkpoint.

Bridie was told that initially her credit was with Fiji Airways.

“Then a few months later, I think it was early August, they sent us a letter saying that actually the credit was now from STA Travel.”

But now, Deloitte administrators appointed for STA travel say the company cannot honor any credits or refunds for canceled trips.

Checkpoint tried to investigate where Chetwin-Kelly’s money and hard-earned money from other affected kiwis have gone.

We start with the now-former STA manager in New Zealand, Sam Morrah, only to find that he too is a victim of his former employer’s rapid descent into voluntary administration.

“I and all of our staff just have no affiliation with the company right now, we are creditors, like everyone else,” Morrah said.

As for the money to pay off credits and refunds owed to former STA customers?

“I don’t know, there is a financial evaluation at the moment, so [what] Deloitte is working. Unfortunately, you would have to ask them for comments, “Morrah said.

“I wish I could help, but I really don’t know. I’m as dark as anyone else.”

Therefore, Checkpoint moved up the chain to STA Travel NZ’s parent company, STA Travel Holding AG, the failure of which preceded the insolvency of its New Zealand subsidiary.

Checkpoint attempted to reach CEO Casper Urhammer and sent him a request for comment via social media.

No response was received from the director of the Swiss-based parent company.

Meanwhile, pocket customers like Bridie Chetwin-Kelly have to draw their own conclusions about where their money has gone.

“Based on the meeting that Deloitte had, the money is like, nowhere. We assume that the money we paid to STA went to Fiji Airways, but we don’t really know if our money was paid to them,” he said.

“And when Fiji Airways apparently returned it, it went straight overseas to the big leading company in Europe. So we have no idea where our money is.”

Deloitte partner David Webb, along with his colleague, Colin Owens, have been appointed joint administrators of STA Travel NZ.

Webb and Owens are following the money. Part of his research is to find out if the funds, unlike Kiwi clients left out of pocket, have left the shores of New Zealand.

“Where is that cash kept? Is it kept at STA entities? It may not be in New Zealand. Or is it in the hands of third parties whom administrators should track and try to bring that money under our control,” Webb said.

Webb said a key job for the trustees had been collecting data from creditors, former STA employees in New Zealand and the directors of the New Zealand company.

But it has not been an easy job, he said.

“The key data is the reserve data, the financial and tertiary data were in the hands of STA employees abroad … A limited number of them still exist or have been laid off through the administrations of their own countries “.

Webb and Owens are due to issue a report within the next week with their initial findings on where the money is being held and the likelihood of recovery.

Then there will be a meeting where creditors will vote on the future of STA NZ, but Webb believes liquidation is highly probable.

As for the payments of those owed? Chetwin-Kelly thinks that’s highly unlikely based on a meeting with Deloitte a few weeks ago.

“A lot of things were clarified, like the fact that the chances of getting our money back are less than one percent, but no, they really didn’t have a good understanding of where our money was. They were very transparent, they said, ‘We just start the process, we still don’t know how to answer many questions. ‘

“They don’t really know. That’s what bothers me the most. Where did our money go?”

Chetwin-Kelly is certainly not the only one asking that question.

In a statement issued Thursday, the trustees revealed that the amount owed to STA Travel Groups creditors has skyrocketed from the previously reported figure of $ 7 million to $ 10 million.