A third player has emerged in the collapse of Newcastle building company Sehez Group.
Peter Netherclift, a project engineer believed to be based in Sydney, was a director of Sehez from January 2015 to December 9 last year, seven weeks before it went into external administration.
The Victorian Supreme Court ordered the company to be wound up last week and appointed a liquidator.
One director, Matt Galvin, has told the Newcastle Herald that Sehez collapsed "owing a s---load of money", at least $2 million to unsecured creditors. It is understood the creditors number more than 100.
Mr Netherclift did not respond to requests for an interview on Friday, but Mr Galvin said his former colleague had had little to do with the company after investing $200,000 in seed money five years ago.
He characterised Mr Netherclift as another unwitting victim of the firm's collapse.
"He never had any involvement. He lived down in Sydney. He was someone Cal and I used to work with. He injected 200 grand to set the business up," Mr Galvin said.
"The agreement was always we'd buy him out after five years. "
Mr Galvin said Mr Netherclift could have expected about $500,000 when he exited the company but now had "not only lost his $200,000, but he's on the hook for some personal guarantees".
Mr Netherclift, 45, lists his address on Linkedin as the semi-rural town of Draper, north-west of Brisbane. Australian Securities and Investments Commission records list his address at the time he was a Sehez director as 43 Church Street, The Hill.
He is a graduate of Wollongong University who has worked on engineering projects in London, Antigua, Newcastle, Queensland and Sydney.
Mr Galvin said Mr Netherclift had planned to build a retreat in the Queensland hinterland, but the Sehez collapse had been a "major f--- up" to those ambitions.
Meanwhile, former special forces soldier Craig Hamburger and wife Kirsten say they are "$400,000 in the hole" after work stopped on their Branxton house several months ago.
The Newcastle Herald reported last week that roofing contractor Nat Meyers, whose wife has been diagnosed with Huntington's disease, was owed at least $40,000 by Sehez for work on the Hamburgers' house.
Mr Hamburger said he was "distraught" that his future home was "the cause of all this tension" and wanted to know why subcontractors had not been paid.
He said he had paid Sehez $375,000 and bought bricks out of his own pocket.
The house's concrete slab, frame and roof were completed, but he feared a crack in the slab could mean "it may all have to come down anyway".
"I've done nine tours of duty. This was it for me. This was where I was retiring after 20 years," Mr Hamburger said.
"I don't want to put that spin on it, but that's exactly what it is. This is my life's savings. I'm medically retired from the military with what?"
Unlike many of Sehez's creditors, Mr Hamburger can apply to the state's home warranty insurance fund to help cover losses.
Mr Galvin said two engineers had signed off on the Branxton slab, which had superficial cracking.
He said the Hamburgers had paid only for works which had been completed.
