Macquarie Bank’s media fund is under scrutiny by ACMA.

In particular, five stations Macquarie Media sold to Stuart Simpson, one-time managing editor of The Age and currently chairman of Harold Mitchell’s online ad agency emitech.

The problem seems to be that Simpson, through his company Elmie Investments, borrowed $9 million dollars from Macquarie Media to buy the stations.

ACMA is interested in knowing whether there is any situation in which Macquarie Media could end up with control of the licences. Current rules stipulate that one operator cannot own more than two radio stations in any licensed area.

To comply with these rules Macquarie had to sell the five stations after they had bought the regional assets of Reg Grundy and UK group DMG for about $366.5 million in 2004.

MMG said yesterday that its subsidiary Macquarie Regional Radioworks had already provided ACMA with a “significant amount of information and documentation”.

It added that it believed it was “in compliance with the Broadcasting Services Act and will continue to co-operate fully with ACMA”.

As a result of the investigation Elmie Investments could be forced to sell the stations which are in Bunbury, Cairns, Mackay, Maryborough and Mildura if ACMA decides they are actually controlled by Macquarie.

A spokesman for ACMA said he did not know how long the investigation would take.