AFRA Airline Boss Banned In Australia

ASIC hands former Qld businessman 3 year ban

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has banned former Queensland businessman, and CEO of AFRA airline, Luke Norman Butler from managing corporations for three years.

The ban follows an investigation into the operations of two air charter companies, Global Air Australia and We Both, which formerly operated as Global Air Leasing.

ASIC found Mr Butler, formerly of Golden Beach, had breached the Corporations Act, was involved in management of We Both while he was bankrupt and had transferred an asset to the detriment of one of the companies.

Both companies were later placed into liquidation.

Mr Butler now lives in Ghana in west Africa.

In July 2003, the Japanese Government won a multi-million dollar compensation claim against Global Air Leasing for reneging on a deal to extradite members of a terror group from the Middle East.

The Supreme Court in Brisbane ordered Global Air Leasing to pay $US6 million to Japan for failing to honour an agreement to fly the five terrorists from Jordan in March 2000.

The court heard Global Air Leasing pulled out of the deal at the last minute, citing maintenance problems with the 20-year-old jumbo jet it intended to use for the flight.

As a result, the Japanese government had to lease an aircraft from Russian-based Aeroflot.

Global Air Leasing argued it was not liable because the Japanese government intended to use the aircraft to carry out illegal kidnappings.