SiN readers will recall the retribution that was wrought upon Grant Thornton last year when four of its partners had the temerity to accept appointments as voluntary administrators of Arrium. The big four – unsecured all – weren’t going to let the Arrium board select its preferred appointees. Westpac’s credit nabob Gwyn Morgan blew a piston before withdrawing half a dozen or so receiverships from GT’s restructuring…
Insolvencies involving incorporated associations are always a bit different but the case of St Gregory’s Armenian School Inc is a standout. Rod Sutherland, the now retired co-founder of Jirsch Sutherland, was appointed liquidator of the association in June 2010 after six of the school’s teachers said they hadn’t been paid and initiated a winding up. Lender the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) realised about $7 million from the…
While Bartercard co-founder and millionaire Brian Hall has seemingly extracted himself from a stoush with Bendigo Adelaide Bank, that has only intensified the pressure on Vincent’s Nick Combis and his former colleague Peter Dinoris, who now runs his own outfit, Artemis Insolvency out of offices in Edward Street, Brisbane. The pair were the trustees of a $350,000 personal insolvency agreement (PIA) Hall had entered into in…
Before one casts a critical eye over the back yards of others, one’s own patch must be beyond reproach, which brings us to the slightly unkempt quarter acre awaiting incoming ASIC chairman James Shipton. “One of the reasons I left to become a regulator is that I genuinely believed that financial institutions, big and small, had lost their way and were losing the trust of…
The Tax Commissioner’s bid for a Federal Court inquiry into the conduct of liquidator David Iannuzzi is an eyebrow raiser for several reasons. Documents made public by the Federal Court reveal that the tax boss wants an inquiry; an order requiring the Veritas Advisory principal to pay compensation; and an order banning him from holding a liquidator’s registration for 10 years. As reported in SiN earlier this week…
FTI’s John Park and his former colleague Ginette Muller are still trying to wipe off some of the opprobrium that attached itself to them after an August 2013 decision containing uncomplimentary remarks about their handling of the administration of LM Investment Management Ltd (LMIM), responsible entity for the LM First Mortgage Income Fund (FMIF). The remarks were made in proceedings which among other things saw BDO’s…
Veritas Advisory principal David Iannuzzi is fighting an attempt by the Commissioner of Taxation (CoT) to ban him from holding a liquidators registration for 10 years over allegations of multiple breaches of the Corporations Act and the ARITA Code of Professional Practice (CPP). A 93 page originating process filed in the Federal Court by the CoT contains accusations that Iannuzzi conspired in schemes to defeat…
It’s the fight they had to have before the fight they’re about to have. In one corner of both the undercard and the main event are Deloitte’s Neil Cussen and David Mansfield, liquidators and receivers of various entities within the Patinack Farm Holdings group once controlled by bankrupt asset trader, Nathan Tinkler. The pair are pitted in both bouts against the Commissioner of Taxation (CoT), who wants to muscle in…
Pitt Street liquidator Jamieson Louttit has avoided the full wrath of an adverse order – kind of – after a judge ruled that indemnity costs should not be applied to two days spent hearing an application launched in April against Louttit by the king of encaffeination, Les Schirato. In a judgment handed down last week NSW Supreme Court judge Ashley Black signalled that Schirato – in his capacity as director…
Given this is largely about booze and what happened to it, recollections could be cloudy. Nevertheless, PwC’s David Merryweather and Greg Hall will need to summon all their prodigious powers of recall now that the Federal Court has empowered a special purpose liquidator (SPL) to delve into their conduct during August 2013, a time when ownership of the liquid assets of David James‘ teetering beverage empire was apparently unclear. This…