ASIC is investigating an alleged transfer of client funds out of Vanessa Ash and Bradley Grimm's Ostrava Equities. Credit:Justin McManus It is also alleged the couple moved into the home in Rockingham Close replete with a swimming pool using a dubious five-year lease agreement that included a bargain base rent of $459 a week. For their part Vanessa Ash and Grimm believe they are victims of a bitter dispute and are understood to maintain a close relationship with the owner and visit him often. But this is just the beginning of the accusations being levelled against Vanessa Ash and Grimm, the latter of whom has been referred to as the "grim reaper in the Melbourne stockbroking world" under parliamentary privilege. Last year, the corporate cop filed action in the Federal Court of Victoria against its former employee and Grimm for allegedly ripping off clients of its Ostrava network of financial services companies.

The home in Rockingham Close in Melbourne's affluent suburb of Kew. Credit:Wayne Taylor The Ostrava companies and a host of other entities associated with Grimm and Ash are in provisional liquidation and the regulator is seeking winding up orders so that full liquidation can be commenced. The couple's Collin Street offices, which were a mess when visited by Fairfax Media a year ago, are now vacant after they were turfed by the provisional liquidators. ASIC's investigation is still ongoing, but the regulator has flagged in court documents that its action could lead to criminal or civil charges being brought against Grimm and Vanessa Ash over their alleged mismanagement of Ostrava client money. Concerns were first raised over the management of the owner's affairs just months after he moved into the nursing home.

In January last year, Sue Lyttleton was appointed administrator to the elderly man's affairs by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in January 2015. Lyttleton alleges $832,013 was transferred in a "sequence of transactions" from the owner's superannuation trustee account into the bank accounts of Ostrava. The transfer was identified as a pension transfer. "The withdrawal and payment of the plaintiff's pension benefit into one or more Bankwest accounts operated by the Ostrava companies was unnecessary and of no benefit to the plaintiff (the owner)," the statement of claim says. The transfers were instead to the benefit of Vanessa Ash and Mr Grimm's Ostrava companies and to the benefit of themselves, Lyttleton alleges. Lyttleton alleges in late October 2015, the couple produced the "purported lease" drafted on December 24, 2014, over the Kew property. The lease names the owner as the landlord and Mr Grimm as the tenant yet Vanessa Ash, using her power of attorney, signed the generous five-year lease on behalf of the owner.

Lyttleton says this lease agreement was not to the benefit of the owner and rather to the benefit of Vanessa Ash and Mr Grimm. By September, Lyttleton sought to evict the couple from the home after forming "the view that it was in the best interests of the plaintiff for the Kew property to be sold with vacant possession and the proceeds to be available to provide for the plaintiff's care and needs". The administrator alleges for Vanessa Ash and Grimm have refused to leave the property. They have also declined to hand over the money from the owner's super fund. Indeed, Vanessa Ash and Grimm were home on Friday morning when visited by BusinessDay but declined to comment ahead of releasing a formal statement later on Friday. Lyttleton alleges the actions of the couple were "dishonest and fraudulent". She is seeking declarations the transfers and lease agreement were unfair to the owner, the return of the owner's money, compensation and costs.

Vanessa Ash says the allegations are wrong. "[The owner] would be horrified that this action was being taken on his behalf," she said. ''I am living in [the owner]'s house in accordance with the express wishes of him. "I am the joint executor and joint beneficiary of his will. My family and I visit him every week and love him dearly." Vanessa Ash says all of the couple's activities have been lawful and according to the owner's wishes and says the administrator did not know the owner when he had his faculties. "I have complete faith that we will get a fair hearing in court when we refute these allegations," she says. Grimm says the Ostrava matter was before the Federal Court on April 1 for directions where the judge ordered mediation, which will occur in mid-May. "We are hopeful that the matter will be resolved in that forum," he says. ASIC has declined to comment.

It's not the first time Grimm has been the subject of serious allegations. In May last year, Fairfax Media revealed ASIC had been warned about Grimm's business dealings in 2005 by Labor MP Luke Donnellan, who is now minister for Ports and Roads and Road Safety. Donnellan requested a review of Grimm's "fraudulent investment activities and the obtaining of financial advantage by deception" under parliamentary privilege. "Grimm is indeed the grim reaper in the Melbourne stockbroking world," Donnellan said. Donnellan alleged Mr Grimm raised $1 million from mum and dad investors leading up to and during the dot-com boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s through investment company Equity Partnership. Yet, ASIC took no action and Grimm has maintained the allegations stem from an embittered former business partner.

Time will tell whether Grimm is really the reaper or whether he and Vanessa Ash have had another terrible misunderstanding. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story has been amended after issues raised by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal about identifying people involved in proceedings related to Victoria's laws on guardianship.