Nursing a broken hand under a black wool sock, liquidator Graham Ward endured more than an hour of cross-examination last Friday, courtesy of a company director seeking to claw back a chunk of the $165,000 in remuneration, expenses and disbursements that Ward and his Mackay Goodwin partner Domenic Calabretta have charged as administrators and liquidators of Securimax Pty Ltd. “There has been a very substantial transfer of…
Pre-positioned sales or pre-packs might trigger an involuntary cringe reflex in politicians and regulators hyper-sensitised to the risk of illegal phoenix activity but that isn’t stopping insolvency law guru Richard Fisher AM or liquidator Nick Crouch, who are combining forces to put the concept on the political agenda. Presenting at a meeting of the Association of Independent Insolvency Practitioners (AIIP) yesterday, Fisher and Crouch explained…
Well former Vincents partner Peter Dinoris has had no luck in the Court of Appeal, neither has fellow liquidator David Clout and it has also emerged that in earlier proceedings, pre-insolvency adviser Peter John Levis was branded a rogue by Clout’s counsel, Mark Martin QC as well as being accused of lying. The claims are contained in Asden Developments Pty Ltd (in liq) v Dinoris [2017] FCAFC 117, published yesterday by the…
It’s not often that a liquidator confirms that three liquidators will suffice on a job that for 18 months has required four but FTI Consulting’s John Park did so yesterday in response to a query from SiN about his colleague and fellow general purpose liquidator (GPL) of Queensland Nickel, Stefan Dopking. “Correct. Three GPL’s all that is needed. Cheers John”, Park said by way of a…
Here’s an unholy shemozzle for the Federal Court to exorcise. Two banks, each with multi-million dollar exposures to separate companies within the same group. Four appointees, installed at some point as either receivers or liquidators of various companies within said group. Add the main shareholder and director, who’s defending one bank’s attempts to bankrupt him. Toss in ASIC. Season with allegations that receivers took possession…
It was back in June that Justice Paul Brereton of the NSW Supreme Court ordered that three Deloitte partners be appointed provisional liquidators of various companies connected to the $165 million Plutus Payroll tax fraud scandal, but it’s his comments in the judgment supporting those orders that might be of interest to readers of SiN. The application to appoint Deloitte’s Tim Norman, Ezio Senatori and Sal Algeri …
There’ll no doubt be a limit to the length of the tentacles attaching to the Plutus Payroll labour hire fraud saga but at the moment the Australian Tax Office’s (ATO) biggest scandal continues to impress with its reach. It was only about a week ago that The Australian newspaper reported that Metcash may have been stung by Plutus-aligned entities in the form of small labour hire firms headed…
Over in the West this week, Pitcher Partners’ Bryan Hughes and Daniel Bredenkamp failed in their latest attempt to extinguish liability claims being pursued by US energy outfit Blue Sky Offshore Services. The Pitchers pair had applied to the Supreme Court of West Australia for summary judgment against Blue Sky on the basis that its claims against them were not arguable and had no realistic chance…
Over in West Australia Pitcher Partners’ Bryan Hughes and Daniel Bredenkamp have been enjoying one of the not uncommon consequences of managing a deed of company arrangement (DoCA) – defending themselves from the wrath of a dissatisfied creditor. In March the Supreme Court on West Australia ruled that the Pitchers pair shouldn’t be removed as deed administrators of Mesa Minerals Ltd after Mesa’s second largest shareholder, Mighty…
In the public interest SiN has resolved to update Supreme Court of NSW judge Paul Brereton about where the corporate regulator hatches its plots from these days because it transpires that the mother of all Corps List curmudgeons isn’t certain that ASIC has moved from 1 Martin Place. The judge’s recollection of the days when ASIC’s modestly remunerated minions enjoyed awkward silences with Macquarie Bank‘s…