On Tuesday shareholders received the news they had feared: Big Review TV, the main operating unit of the listed company, was being placed into voluntary administration by Brandon Evertz and Sonia Thurston.

Evertz and Thurston are both directors of Big Review TV: the son and apparent partner of Richard Evertz, the 50-year-old chief executive who resigned after leaving a trail of destruction rarely seen before on the Australian sharemarket.

Once praised as an entrepreneurial genius by the company's supporters, Evertz senior is now the target of their anger, as they face a total wipe-out in capital.

Shares in Big Un last traded on Friday, February 16, at a price of $2.22. Before trading resumed the following Monday, shares were placed in a trading halt, and then into suspension as regulators conducted a deeper investigation into their disclosures, share trading activity and business model.

Big Review TV Ad as seen in Times Square, New York. Posted to Twitter in December 2017 by Brandon Evertz. Twitter

Now, as the reality dawns on investors and the market that those shares are all but worthless, the financial and emotional costs are being counted.

For many of Big Un's investors, the demise is catastrophic.

In an email group formed by a group of shareholders to discuss the company, the extent of the losses is beginning to emerge. One 70-year old investor is understood – through the forum – to have mortgaged his home and be sitting on a $3 million dollar loss. There is no way back for him, one shareholder told The Australian Financial Review.


Another, a 30-year old from Sydney, had his wedding fund and housing deposit – 10 years of his life's savings – tied up in company's shares. He expects to lose $400,000.

Brandon Evertz from Big Un, CEO and co-founder at Big Review TV at the CEO cook off, in March 2018. Louie Douvis

Another retiree took to the online forum Hot Copper to lament his lost $6600 which he described as "a big percentage of my total assets".

"I am hurting and as I'm 75 I have little use of capital losses," the poster said.

During the period of suspension, one investor wrote to tell the Financial Review that updates on the company were a "deciding factor between life and death".

One shareholder who has been in communication with other investors has told the Financial Review some have talked about taking their lives.

Brandon Evertz reacts as he sees a Big Review TV ad in Times Square, New York. Posted to Twitter in December 2017 by Brandon Evertz . Big Un

The toll-free number of Life Line (13 11 14) was shared by posters on Hot Copper.


"It's life changing, but not in a good way," said one shareholder.

"I'm about to lose everything, including the kids, because I didn't listen to my wife," another anonymous investor told the Financial Review via text message.

The move into administration came as a shock to Big Review TV's staff in Sydney, the Sunshine Coast, London and Los Angeles, who had, until the very end, been sold the dream.

The Team at Big Un Limited back row: Anthony Meyer, Tim Dewshurt, Robert Crossman, Richard Evertz, Andy Corner front row Sonia Thurston, Brandon Evertz. Supplied

In Los Angeles, some staff members were left scrambling to pay their rent after they were told the company was folding. That includes some staff that moved up from Austin, Texas after that office was closed in February.

Another content producer in London – who is weeks away from being a father – is in a panic after being left without an income.

Geoff Thurston, understood to be Sonia Thurston's brother, told staff this week that the company had been placed into administration. One UK employment agency who was paying the wages of some Big employees, told affected employees to chase up with Big in Australia for $25,000 of unpaid wages because the agency hadn't been paid.

Several staff members said that until recently, Big Review TV had been a good place to work. If they could hit their numbers and get a certain number of small businesses to agree to a free video shoot, they could earn up to $10,000 a month.


To make that money they were more than happy to tell a few white lies to small businesses – such as "we're on the lookout for the best martial arts gyms in Western Sydney", when in fact, they had called the business at random.

But the writing was on the wall when the company began to pay commissions on a one-month delay basis.

Some angry staff are considering taking action against the company, but for now, they're awaiting word from the administrator, the Sydney-based DW Advisory.

But individual investors are even more furious: they're demanding answers.

The saga of Big Un Limited will go down as one of the biggest scandals in Australian corporate history. The company's incredible share price surge was predicated on an impressive growth in cash sales that were tracking at $100 million annually. But it turned out those sales were in the form of financing advanced by a Sydney-based finance company, FC Capital, most of which was not backed by actual customer sales.

The revelations that came as a result of reporting by The Australian Financial Review led to the suspension of the company's shares as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the ASX commenced investigations.

"One investor said he'd been in the sharemarket for 40 years and have never seen anything like it," one affected shareholder said wrote in an email.

As they come to terms with their financial losses, they are seeking someone to blame. Top of their list is master salesman Richard Evertz and his close-knit management team.


"What was really the selling factor, was their excitement," said a shareholder who attended the company annual general meeting in November and spoke to Evertz about the Big's business prospects.

"They couldn't contain it. They thought this thing was going to the moon."

Evertz, whom the Financial Review revealed had been previously convicted on charges of blackmail in 1994 resigned on Tuesday, the day his son and partner placed the company into voluntary administration. Several sources say the trio all live together in Avalon while Richard drives a Big Review TV branded Tesla.

Sources said Richard also convinced close friends to invest heavily in the company and discouraged others from selling shares. Two large investors are being forced to sell their houses as a result of their losses, sources said.

Most of the senior management are among the largest shareholders in the company, so are bearing the losses. But investors want to know how long Big's management thought it could keep the show going without disclosing its unusual financing arrangements.

There is also an air of suspicion about the voluntary administration process. Just days after Big Review TV creditor FC Capital shifted its "tens of millions of dollars" of exposure to Adam Shepard, an insolvency expert, directors appointed DW Advisory as administrators. This, sources said, could facilitate a group of investors close to management being able to reclaim the asset and potentially reboot Big Review in the United States.

Meanwhile shareholders are left with the Big Un shell that contains two small publishing businesses with a combined worth of $5.2 million.

"Where was ASIC? While Richard was pulling the strings, some responsibility has to lie with the ASIC for approving the announcement, ASIC for not looking, and the auditors that approved the accounts," one shareholder said.

"At the end of the day, shareholders are likely to be left holding the can," said another shareholder. "That's part of the risk of being a shareholder that we all need to accept. However, in cases like this, where there's been a breakdown in safeguards and regulation from the auditor, board, ASX and possibly ASIC, is there any recourse for shareholders from these other stakeholders who have let this occur under their watch?"