After a lifetime of schemes and dreams, in a career that has taken him from the dizzy heights of national media attention, to the lows of bankruptcy, Ashard's business dealings have long been shrouded in controversy.

Now a Newcastle Herald investigation can reveal that Ashard's name was changed with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) to Robert Arthur Lambell, who was convicted of attempted murder in 2003.

The bizarre twist has investor's calling for an investigation by the corporate watchdog to determine how the name change on its registry took place.

At a time when investors were turning up the heat on Ashard, demanding to know what happened to the money they put into his numerous inventions, someone accessed ASIC's company database in April 2017 and changed Ashard's name to Lambell's.

Several investors who spoke to the Newcastle Herald on condition of anonymity believe it was done to throw them off the scent.

One woman said when she heard that Lambell had taken over the companies, many people chasing money from Ashard backed off.

"We assumed that Lambell had purchased the shares and was now running the companies, we couldn't really go and ask him where our money was," she said.

"It really put an end to some people pursuing what happened, we dropped off like flies after that. It really fooled us."

Lambell, a former Dubbo menswear store owner, was sentenced in 2004 to nine years' jail for the attempted murder of his then de facto partner's ex-husband and ordering the killing of another man by having their tongues removed with acid.

After initially protesting his innocence, Lambell pleaded guilty to two counts of of soliciting, encouraging or persuading to murder.

The 68-year-old, who later moved to Lake Macquarie, is married to Ashard's former accountant Jennifer Brockwell, also known as Jennifer Lambell.

Ashard and Lambell confirmed they worked together on projects, but both men said they knew nothing about the name change in ASIC's system.

The Newcastle Herald revealed on Saturday that Ashard has been winning over investors for decades with his seemingly ingenious ideas and endless talk that a major breakthrough is just around the corner.

Since the 1990s, Ashard has been involved in 31 companies, taken out dozens patents and attracted scores of financial backers for a myriad of inventions that have gone nowhere.

One company raised more than $1 million for a life jacket invention that never made it into production. Now people are demanding to know what happened to their money.

Last week Hunter Valley couple, Kim and Scott Waters, represented by barrister Stephen Ryan, won a civil claim against Ashard in Newcastle Local Court after he agreed to repay them $75,000, plus legal costs, from one of his many failed ventures.

Another investor said most of the people who put money up had no personal dealings with Lambell. He said he was told Lambell got involved to assist Ashard, and people found out about his past after reading a newspaper article.

"It would be fair to say that some people figured it wasn't worth pursuing after that," he said.

"It was a bit of a game changer."

A Hunter Valley investor said she "was really chasing Ashard about what had gone on around the time of the name change".

"It really took the heat off him because we all believed the shares had been purchased by another person and he wasn't in control anymore," she said.

The name change made it look like Ashard was no longer the major shareholder of seven companies linked to different inventions and investor groups.

Overnight, Lambell appeared to take control and become the majority shareholder in seven different companies.

But in reality, nothing had changed except Ashard's identity was changed to Lambell's on ASIC's registry.

Irrespective of what investors thought, Ashard was still the majority shareholder in Duo Wonder Ring, Inflate to Live, Rippsaver, Float Industries, International Bio Group, Let's Go for Zero and Zactill, under the name Robert Lambell.

When asked about why his name was changed with ASIC to Lambell's, Ashard replied: "I don't know anything about that."

Ashard told the Newcastle Herald that he transferred some shares to Lambell for a "dollar or something", but declined to elaborate.

"They were trying to get them going and I offered that I would give all the knowledge that they needed," he said. "I would support them."

An ASIC spokeswoman said the watchdog accepted documents at "face value" and did not check the accuracy of information supplied. She said the majority of name change notifications were made via an online portal and had to be done by another company officeholder.

"The register is merely a record of company notifications to ASIC," she said. "This will be changing once registry modernisation commences, noting that a director identification number is proposed which is underpinned by identity checks. This will improve the integrity of our registers."

It is an offence to deliberately lodge false or misleading documents with ASIC and carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment or a fine of up to $126,000. Under the modernisation plan, all directors will be given a unique director identification number to allow ASIC to better track officeholders.

According to ASIC's database, name change forms were lodged seven times on the same day in April 2017.

The documents show the forms were lodged under the name Jennifer Brockwell (Lambell) and certified electronically by Ashard. Both Ashard and Mrs Lambell denied any knowledge of the name change.

"I don't know how it happened," Mrs Lambell said. "I'm at a loss. Some of those companies I wasn't even privy to."

Her husband also said he was unaware Ashard's name had been changed to his. "How my name has become involved, I do not know," he said.

Lambell, who said he gave up a full-time job to assist Ashard for about 12 months, said he believed the inventor had been crucified by people constantly putting hurdles in his way.

"The point of this seemed counterproductive. If he could not develop something, how were they going to get some return on the investment...," he said.

"It's not a matter of, is David going to get something off the ground, it's a matter of when."

Mrs Lambell confirmed her husband purchased shares in one company from Ashard. She said the amount paid wasn't a lot and it was done to give her husband control.

Ashard is the secretary and Lambell the director of Beesmoker Pty Ltd, formally known as Inflate to LIve, and the pair have worked on a beekeeping smoker invention together.

Lambell said his past had nothing to do with Ashard's business dealings.

"David has some pretty good ideas and no idea how to get them to fruition," he said. "A lot of people invested large sums of money and a lot of things went very pear shaped right from the beginning."

Mrs Lambell said a lot of the money people invested was used for legal fees and engineers.

The retired Lake Macaquarie accountant said start-up companies were notoriously difficult to get off the ground and if people chose to invest in Ashard's inventions that was their responsibility.

"There is a lot of things that happen between an idea and getting it to market," she said.

"He [Ashard] was a client and I tried to help. My husband spent 12 months with one of his inventions and tried to get it to market but ran into problems with another engineer."

Ashard said that every cent from investors went into his inventions and blamed the repeated failures on his lack of business acumen.

Still hopeful about his latest invention, that he is promoting as being able to reduce heating bills by 90 per cent and as an answer to climate change, Ashard said if it "takes off" he would have the money to repay everyone.

"I've never conned anyone out of money," he said. "I've never taken any money off people just for my gain. I've only ever used it for an invention."

Ashard confirmed that he has a database with hundreds of inventions, has taken money from "60 or 70 investors" over decades, and agreed none of his inventions got off the ground.

"I didn't want their money for no reason," he said. "Everything I've ever done, I've always thought well if this works, we'll repay everybody back. It wasn't about me."

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