For an insolvency practitioner, suing a big four bank cannot be an easy decision. The repercussions are obvious and zealously applied. Appointments cease. Word gets around. Other banks wonder. Does this IP appreciate the largesse we bestow? For BRI Ferrier Adelaide principal Andre Strazdins, it’s a question of choice, or more particularly, its absence. Sure the potentially adverse consequences of his battle to recover fees, costs…
Asden Developments liquidator David Clout has been ordered to fork out $80,000 for security for costs ahead of his challenge to a Federal Court decision which rejected his damages claim despite finding that Clout’s predecessor at Asden, Peter Dinoris, had failed in his duties. Federal Court Justice Brigitte Markovic ruled last week that $80,000 was the appropriate amount for Clout to stump up after Dinoris and…
Disgraced former liquidator Mark Darren Levi has been spared gaol time after a judge this morning ordered he serve a sentence of 18 months fully suspended. In June last year, Levi, 43 pleaded guilty to a charge of gaining a benefit by deception. His guilty plea came seven years after he stole $90,000 from a receivership account whilst working in the offices of Jamieson Louttit…
The KordaMentha foursome presiding over Australia’s most politically fraught external administration had a much needed win this week, thanks to an unnamed employee (or perhaps former employee) of equipment finance outfit Alleasing. On Tuesday Supreme Court justice Paul Brereton ruled that security interests over iron ore crushing equipment, originally registered on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) by Alleasing, vested with Arrium group entity OneSteel. His…
What would banned director Stephen Charles Hall of Burleigh Heads in Queensland do without wife Jodie? When the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) banned the pre-insolvency advisor and head of Eagle Business Solutions (EBS) for five years from April 26, 2016 Jodie Lynette Hall stepped in to ensure some of her husband’s companies continued with herself at the helm. There was no saving EBS. It was…
After almost a decade domiciled at 88 Pitt Street, Veritas Advisory principal David Iannuzzi is moving out, though the new digs could hardly be located in more familiar surrounds given he and his team are moving across the road to Angel Place. Level 12, 88 Pitt used to be owned by the late Murray Godfrey of RMG Partners. Godfrey and Iannuzzi formed Veritas Advisory in 2013 and…
Mark Robinson was typically diplomatic yesterday when asked to discuss the latest ruling on Reed Constructions Australia (RCA), to which the PPB partner was appointed liquidator by the courts on July 9, 2012. Robinson declined, for example, to share his view of the role in the latest skirmish played by HLB Man Judd’s Barry Taylor, preferring instead to express a position of faultless neutrality. “We all…
A certain modestly proportioned law firm might be beginning to feel the queasiness of unwelcome anticipation spiralling into the anxiety of imminent dread as orders handed down by Justice Ashley Black in December are shortly to be brought into effect. It was three days before Christmas when the NSW Supreme Court Justice approved the application of McGrathNicol’s Shaun Fraser and Tony McGrath to utilise funds under their control…
Queensland construction industry creditors have been getting the pineapple – either end is a daunting prospect – since at least 2013 when the still unfolding collapse of Walton Constructions commenced, and if this week’s events in the state of committees is any guide, restive grow the natives. On Tuesday, trade creditors of mid-tier building firm Cullen Group turned out in droves at the first meeting…
Remember when the courts banned Gold Coast turnaround advisor Stephen Charles Hall from being a director of a company for five years? It was back in April 2016. The 26th to be precise. ASIC had investigated the prolific cold caller after he got in the ear of company director Brad Streeter and persuaded him that the imminent winding up of his company by the ATO…