Lee Seng Huang told The Star that the company had been questioned on the complaints prior to a joint Fairfax Media-Four Corners investigation which claimed to have uncovered a “litany of questionable business practices” at Aveo.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), these included the churning of residents, fee gouging, safety issues and misleading marketing promises “made to some of the country’s most vulnerable people”.
“When we were questioned on these cases prior to the story, the company released a 19-page answer to address the alleged complaints point by point. This has been released to the ASX (Australian Securities Exchange). This was largely ignored by the programme,” Lee told The Star.
He added that each complaint had a specific set of circumstances which were not symptomatic of the business.
“We do not exploit our residents,” he was quoted as saying.
He also told the daily that all residents and potential residents are allowed a 120-day cooling-off period to decide whether they want the lifestyle offered at the retirement village.
Lee, 42, owns a 22.6% stake in Aveo reportedly worth A$400 million (RM1.301 billion). Lee himself controls Mulpha International Bhd, Malaysia’s largest real estate investor and developer in Australia.
Reports earlier today said Aveo, which has more than 13,000 residents across 89 villages around the country, is ripping off its residents through high fees and other unfair practices.
SMH said the investigation found that many retirees did not even know what they were signing until it was too late. It also documented some of the horror stories told by those affected.
Aveo and Lee, its non-executive chairman, are now said to be under scrutiny by the Australian authorities.
According to Australian newspaper The Age, Aveo has launched a buyback of 9% or just under US$150 million (RM640 million) of the company’s stock on a one-for-one basis.
The report quoted a stockbroker who described the move as “the reaction of a company under siege”.
Australian politicians are also calling on the government to urgently review the retirement village sector in the country.
Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Allan Fels told The Age that “vigorous” action was needed to clean up the sector which had “fallen through the regulatory cracks”.
Malaysian tycoon implicated in Aussie retirement homes scandal