A report about two elderly Australians losing their house after spending more than $100,000 on advice from a company accused of operating a multi-million dollar tax evasion scheme highlights the risks inherent in the practice of referral. Queensland fruit and vegetable peddlers Tony and Doris Di Blasio operated the Crisp on Creek fruit and veg business in Mount Gravatt in Queensland but ran into trouble meeting…
It’s not every insolvency practitioner who’s accused of connivance in a conspiracy so grand that the federal executive lies at its heart but for John Park, it’s not just fake news, it’s not even new. Where do I start,?” Park said yesterday when SiN rang to discuss the latest incendiary affidavit authored by former member of parliament and owner of the Yabulu Nickel Refinery, Clive Palmer. “Every…
It seems the settlement that Octaviar’s liquidators extracted from KPMG in 2016 – with the help of a litigation funder – hasn’t quelled this tortured liquidation’s capacity to infect parties involved with discontent, rancour and litigious intent whilst simultaneously delivering millions in fees to the appointees and their advisers. KPMG settled a class action with unit holders in Octaviar’s Premium Income Fund (PIM) in 2015 and the…
The demolition of the liquidator’s exit plan could not have been more sweeping or complete. In 500 plus paragraphs delivered on Monday, Justice Greg Parker of the Supreme Court of South Australia dismissed every argument of Adelaide liquidator Nick Orfanos in a battle commenced a decade ago. Orfanos, accountant Michael Michaels and Willem (Bill) Ouwens, who as well as being an accountant is the Honorary Consul for the…
The issue of receivers’ fees and expenses is endlessly vexed it seems. In the Supreme Court of Victoria’s court of appeal this week judgment was delivered in relation to a lengthy battle fought between Hall Chadwick’s David Ross and Richard Albarran and their appointor. The pair were appointed receivers of Action Cycles in July 2011 by Gippsreal Ltd under a deed of appointment and indemnity which…
Is Asden Developments the insolvency equivalent of an A-bomb? Its ex-director and her advisor were bankrupted, its first liquidator was admonished by the courts, and when the second liquidator tried to turn his predecessor’s humiliation into recoveries and fees, he lost. That was the initial fallout after Asden was placed into liquidation by its director back in late 2010. Now it seems even parties somewhat removed…
Languishing in a Thai rehab clinic may or may not be a sound basis for defending oneself against a plaintiff intent on recovering impugned payments but either way Sam Henderson has likely discovered by now that he’s been ordered to pay a weighty slab of almost $663,000, awarded to liquidator Mike Smith yesterday In the Matter of Central Management (NSW) Pty Ltd [2017] NSWSC 1258. A former…
What would Australia’s great bush bard make of the press pack mayhem outside and inside the Banjo Patterson room on Level three of Sydney’s Marriott Hotel yesterday? Perhaps the great man might want a quiet word with Ten Network Holding’s administrator Mark Korda – a man known more for his numerical eloquence – and ask him how a bloody accountant can have cameramen and women, radio…
When you use your casting vote to defy the wants of the largest creditor and that creditor is the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT), expect blowback. In the case of Veritas Advisory principal David Iannuzzi, the blowback manifested in him being ousted from an appointment yesterday. According to orders made in the Federal Court Iannuzzi has resigned, by consent and without admission, as court-appointed liquidator of North…
Many will have seen the somewhat depressing numbers in respective of formal insolvency appointments released by ASIC this week. As that report coincided with SiN being directed by one practitioner to take note of a particular DIRRI issued by rivals, it got us to thinking whether in the desperate clamour for work, the renewed focus on independence brought about by KordaMentha’s pre-appointment activities at the…