Would-be tourists who lost thousands to folded travel company We Are Bamboo say the director and co-founder have been living lavishly with “extravagant” weddings, overseas holidays and a plan to build a boat and sail the world.

The company has been under fire after a liquidation report revealed director Colin Salisbury put more than US$2 million ($3.24m) of customer funds into multiple cryptocurrency platforms from October 2020 until mid-2022, and lost all of the money.

We Are Bamboo announced in October last year they were going under, and that the hundreds of customers who had already paid for their holidays would not be receiving refunds under the “force majeure” section of the terms and conditions.

Colin Salisbury, director of Kiwi-based travel company We Are Bamboo, began building a boat in January 2021

The company offered ethical travel packages allowing customers to engage in volunteer work in the countries they visited. Most of the customers were from the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

In a statement at the time of the closure, Bamboo blamed Covid and a small group of customers who weren’t prepared to wait any longer for refunds, but customers were shocked last week to discover the money had been lost to crypto-trading. This included US$800,000 Salisbury put into four fraudulent crypto platforms.

Salt has been rubbed in the wound for some customers who said Salisbury and co-founder Mark Foster-Murray had previously been posting photos online of their “lavish” lifestyles.

Customer Sheryl Yesucevitz, from Massachusetts, said she had seen social media posts showing Foster-Murray’s “extravagant wedding in a castle” in June last year, and Salisbury’s journey building a boat which he planned to sail the world in.

In an email sent out to Bamboo customers before the closure, Salisbury announced his intention to break a world record.

He and his sailing partner were set to depart on September 1 this year from Auckland to sail their 19ft yacht around the world in 400 days, creating a new record by sailing a boat under 20ft, the email said.

Salisbury’s boat-building project has been documented on his Facebook page, along with posts about international holidays, including a trip to Thailand in mid-2022, just months before the company announced its closure. It is not clear whether Salisbury intends to continue with the project.

Foster-Murray’s wedding was held at a castle in Cardiff, Wales. It is understood he lives abroad.

Neither man, nor any representative of We Are Bamboo, has responded to the Herald or been able to be contacted for comment.

“Seeing how lavish of a lifestyle that these men both have sickens me,” Yesucevitz said. “I am a single mum. I work very hard to do anything that I want to do. If I want to take a vacation I have to plan for a year.”

She felt the pair had essentially taken her money - through their salaries - and used it for “extravagant weddings and building boats” while she was left without her holiday or her money.

“I just think it’s sad that we put our trust in these people for what we thought was going to be an amazing experience, making a difference, and they took advantage of that and left us with nothing.”

Hamilton woman Donna Barraclough said she was “not surprised” to hear how the money had been lost.

“These people use our hard-earned money as their play money with zero guilt.

“They were living out of their dreams, not their means.”

Georgia woman Adrienne Thatcher did several tours with Bamboo before their closure, and was booked to go to Vietnam.

“They broke my heart. I lost a lot of money but that does not compare to what the staff and tour guides lost. They lost their livelihoods and the animals and people who needed help, that’s who I care about,” she said.

Hopes are low for many of the customers that they will be able to get paid out when the liquidation process is complete.

While some people have successfully done a chargeback through their credit card companies, many remain out of pocket for several thousand dollars. The latest liquidation report from BDO shows Bamboo has only $8207 cash on hand.

While the total creditor claims BDO has received exceed $4 million, this figure is not verified. BDO has had trouble determining exactly how much money is owed due to Bamboo’s poor record-keeping system.

“The database that the company used was impractical to extract information about which customers had paid deposits – there was no clear list of creditors, largely due to the database system being over 12 years old,” the report said. “We were advised that to produce such a list would require manual extraction of individual creditors and the volume of creditors was such that this would not be practical.”

Many customers were also caught out after buying a Chubb travel insurance package through Bamboo’s website, only to be told by Chubb their insurance was not valid.

Adrienne Thatcher, a victim of Kiwi travel company We Are Bamboo's collapse, travelled to Thailand in 2018 on one of their packages. Photo / Supplied

“The travel insurance never covered company insolvency, and we understand the policy only came into effect once a customer had begun their journey,” the report said.

“We are aware that the insurance lapsed in February 2020. The director has confirmed under oath that customers were at all times insured when travelling, however we have not reviewed documentation to support this claim.”

Customers spoken to by the Herald said they had received messages from Chubb informing them their insurance did not exist.

“There are also allegations that certificates of currency were doctored to include traveller’s names and travel periods. This information will be referred to the Commerce Commission and Serious Fraud Office who will determine whether further action is appropriate,” the report said.

The commission and SFO have suspended their own investigations pending the outcome of the liquidation process.

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice, and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.