Convicted fraudster Oliver Roths, also known as Oliver Banovec, said he had no idea how much money he made this year.

Under heavy questioning by lawyer Stefan Briggs, assisting liquidator Thomas Dawson, of DCL Advisory, Roths repeatedly told the public examination into the collapse of GLFB Pty Ltd (trading as Harvest Homes NSW) and Harvest Homes (Properties) that he could not provide "any estimate" of his income.

Roths, who spent time in jail for fraud and perjury, said he had no idea if he earned more than $100,000 or more than $200,000.

After being warned by Senior Registrar Thomas Morgan that failure to answer questions could see him in contempt of court, Roths unsuccessfully objected to the line of questioning.

"I cannot tell you off the top of my head what my income was for the last month because I am not aware of it," he said.

"I don't count my income on a weekly or monthly basis, income is determined by a number of factors mainly what the accountant advises you at the end of the financial year. As I sit here, I am unable to give you a precise answer for any period of time."

Roths was also unable to estimate how much money had gone into his bank accounts in the past month, to which Mr Briggs responded that his answers "beggar belief".

"I can't answer that question, because I don't know the answer to that question," Roths said.

The public examination is picking over the bones of the failed Newcastle builder, that collapsed in 2019 owing creditors millions.

Earlier this month, Harvest Homes directors Steve Taylor and Dean Turner told the public examination how they unwittingly handed control of their business to Roths, when a company he was linked to, AXL Financial, took a majority shareholding in the Mayfield-based builder.

The pair, who were unaware Roths was a convicted fraud, said that within a few months Harvest Homes started experiencing cashflow problems and went from turning over $16 million to liquidation in just over two years.

But Roths told a different story on Thursday, describing himself as an "aggrieved creditor" of Harvest Homes, owed almost $3 million.

He told Registrar Morgan he did not provide any documents which he had been summonsed to produce because the fee offered by the liquidator was "by far inadequate".

Roths, a former eastern suburbs rich kid who was sentenced in 2010 to seven years' jail for fraudulently using $500,000 of an investor's money to support his business, said his taxable income last financial year was $45,000, but he had no idea if it had gone up or down since.

He went further to reveal that he owned no property in his own name, but for the past two years had been renting a luxury five-bedroom house in Northbridge for between $3400 and $3500 a week.

He was unsure what bank accounts the rent was paid from, or exactly who paid the rent.

The Austrian born 43-year-old said he was able to afford the rent because AXL Financial was a co-tenant on the lease.

He moved out of the house two weeks ago and was living in another Northbridge property leased by his friend Raymond Yu. Roths said he paid the weekly $2000 rent bill and Mr Yu did not live at the property.

The court heard Roths and Agility Finance director Ben Jennings took control of AXL Financial, in 2020 and 2019 respectively, in an effort to realise debts for secured creditors.

Roths described his job as "director", but was unsure exactly what companies he was a director of and said he "never thought about" what industry he worked in.

He detailed two businesses he was involved in with former Macquarie bank director-turned-jailbird Ian 'Rocky' Chalmers who was released from Sydney's Long Bay prison in 2014.

The former stockbroker was found guilty of conspiring to import up to $15 million worth of cocaine into Australia involving corrupt Sydney airport baggage handlers.

Roths said the pair were involved in a consumer and commercial robotics business and a medical equipment supply firm.

Two other people from England and China were involved, but he said their names "escape me".

The court previously heard Roths appointed another convicted fraud, Adam Hinchliffe, who was jailed for embezzling $1.7 million in 2013, as general manager of Harvest Homes.

Mr Taylor described how he went "ballistic" when he discovered Hinchliffe had made a major purchase and charged it to the Harvest Homes account.

"Mr Hinchliffe bought himself a $130,000 BMW and organised for the lease payments to be taken out of the GLFB accounts," he said. "So that was pretty much the last straw."

Hinchliffe started with Harvest Homes in 2017 and was dismissed by Roths in early 2019.

He told the court he met Roths through a friend named "Wally", whose surname he couldn't recall, and denied the pair met in jail.

According to Roths, the value of shares held by trusts he is a beneficiary of is between $1 and $10 million, "depending on how you value them".

He said several companies he had an interest in held real estate in Korea, after lenders defaulted on loans and it was his job to recover the debts.

Speaking about his time dealing with Harvest Homes, Roths said there was a "vast area of financing arrangements" put in place including loans from AXL Financial and Agility Finance.

He said the loans were secured by "everything" owned by Harvest Homes.

According to Mr Roths, $2.8 million was owed to companies linked to him, including $1.3 million to AXL Financial and $1.5 million to Roths Holdings Australia.

Some of these loans were managed by Agility Finance.

"There were many [loan advances] made over the entire time," he said.

When asked where the money to Harvest Homes was paid and when, Mr Roths said he was unsure.

The court heard a dispute arose in early 2019 between Roths and Harvest Homes.

"Mr Taylor and Mr Turner have taken control of the business disregarding the majority shareholders, who was AXL Financial at the time," Roths said.

When pushed for detail about whether the dispute began because Mr Taylor and Mr Turner started making payments to creditors, Roths said he could not remember.

"We made a settlement agreement, it was signed, everything [was] finished. I have not given it a second thought," he said.

Mr Turner and Mr Taylor started Harvest Homes in 2008 and built it from nothing to building up to 100 homes a year.

According to Mr Taylor, things came to a head when he received a phone call in early 2019 and learnt Roths was Oliver Banovec.

He described how the co-founders battled to take back control of the company.

"Mr Roths wanted $300,000 or $370,000 paid to him," Mr Taylor said.

"We had to pay subbies and suppliers, we had decided to pay subbies and suppliers instead of Mr Roths because at that stage we realised we were being defrauded. He went berserk and threatened all kinds of legal action."

Mr Turner said as the majority Harvest Homes shareholder, via AXL Financial, they had no reason not to initially trust Roths, but after they discovered who he was everything changed.

"He instructed the accounts department to pay money in the bank account, about $370,000, directly to him and not company creditors," he said.

"We understood his intentions were not honourable so we instructed the accounts department to pay the creditors and that enraged him."

The court also heard Roths was involved with a "number of financial transactions" with Moshav Financial, run by high-profile Sydney property developer Tal Silberman.

Roths said this involved "mainly loans to borrowers" and it could "possibly" involve more than 20 loans.

The largest loan he could recall was "in excess of a number of millions", possibly more than $5 million, and the loans were traditionally secured by property.

Roths, AXL Financial and Roths Holdings Australia supplied money for the co-loans with Moshav.

Tim Wang, who was employed at AXL Financial and later he did work for Harvest Homes, described going to the Double Bay offices of Moshav Financial to meet Mr Silberman with Roths on several occasions between 2016 and 2018.

Mr Wang said Roths and Mr Silberman would discuss obtaining visas for overseas workers.

Mr Taylor said he first met Roths when he offered to provide cheap Chinese labour to Harvest Homes.

The public examination has been adjourned.

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