• It’s not a problem that most of us have: What to do when you fall out with a former friend who owes you $1.5 million.

But business heavyweights George Kerr and Michael Carolan have been in the High Court, arguing over whether money lent to Carolan to help him buy a $5m Remuera, Auckland house was an interest-bearing loan, or should be “written off”.

Kerr and Carolan were friends and colleagues for a number of years. Carolan left his job with Macquarie Bank in 2007 to work for Kerr Entities Group, on the understanding he would be pulling in a salary package that was as big as the bank had offered him.

But, coming out of a divorce, he could not assemble the funds to purchase the expensive home he and his new wife wanted to buy. Kerr stepped in with a loan. A mortgage with BNZ made up the difference, with interest payments of $360,000 a year.

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Loan

SIMON MAUDE/FAIRFAX NZ
A dispute between high-profile businessmen George Kerr and Michael Carolan has reached the High Court.

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