With McGrathNicol this week affirming its hold on the RCR Tomlinson administration without a whimper of inquiry about $420,000 in pre-appointment fees, it starting to sound like ‘All I want for Christmas is a pre-appointment gig that morphs into a V-bloody-A!’ Such at least was INO’s first and admittedly cynical thought on unwrapping the contents of Andrew Sallway and Duncan Clubb’s Declaration of Independence, Relevant Relationships and…
More detail has emerged about the possible phoenix transaction that has embroiled FTI Consulting’s Joanne Dunn in an unseemly scrap with the Commonwealth’s FEG Recovery Unit. In Commonwealth of Australia, in the matter of ACN 093 117 232 Pty Ltd (in liquidation) v ACN 093 117 232 Pty Ltd (in liquidation) [2018] FCA 1922 Federal Court Justice Roger Derrington has granted FEG orders for the appointment of a special…
Advertorial In June this year INO reported from the inaugural conference of the Association of Independent Insolvency Practitioners (AIIP), observing that the delegates gathered at Canberra’s Hyatt Hotel break seemed hungry for change. Perhaps that collective mindset was prophetic? When AIIP members gather in Canberra next time Winter rolls around the theme of the 2019 conference will be “Dealing with Change”. Be careful what you…
Advertorial On December 19 Ladies Insolvency Professionals (LIPS) will be hosting its annual Christmas Cocktail function and like last year, much of the focus will be on raising funds for the family of much loved liquidator David ‘Shanno’ Shannon, who died on December 18, 2017 after a long battle with motor neurone disease. To commemorate a year passing since Shanno’s death a portion of the $65…
FTI Consulting’s Joanne Dunn has been supplanted by a special purpose liquidator (SPL) after the Commonwealth’s FEG Recovery Unit decided it wanted someone else to investigate possible phoenix transactions involving companies within the Intelara Group (Intelara). Last week in the Federal Court Justice Roger Derrington heard that FEG wanted Perth-based practitioner Jack James appointed SPL of a company known only by its Australian Company Number –…
There’s a saying that the margin’s in the mystery. The more complex the offering the easier it is to conceal fees and gouges. And nobody wants to admit they haven’t a clue how the investment they’ve backed nets a dime. Now whilst a trustee in bankruptcy is often of prudent character he or she might consider invoking maxims about margins and mystery when contemplating whether…
Balance Insolvency’s Tim Cook spent a couple of hours in the witness box in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, contributing as best as he could to the proceedings currently underway in the matter of Fearndale Holdings. Cook is Fearndale’s most recent external administrator, having been appointed as voluntary administrator (VA) back on May 3 of this year. We missed the bulk of his testimony but did…
While reading the declaration of independence, relevant relationships and indemnities (DIRRI) filed by the four McGrathNicol partners appointed voluntary administrators (VAs) of RCR Tomlinson Ltd last week, INO was gripped with a sense of deja vu. The DIRRI provides significant detail on McGrathNicol’s pre-appointment involvement with the failed engineering firm, much like the supplementary DIRRI KordaMentha lodged on June 22, 2017, a week after its initial disclosures in respect of extensive…
When SV Partners’ pair Shumit Banerjee and Jason Porter were appointed joint and several voluntary administrators (VAs) of United Security Enterprises Pty Ltd (USE’s) it dawned on them very quickly that they had a problem. Under the Security Industry Act and cl 13(3) of the Security Industry Regulation 2016 (NSW) the Commissioner of Police was obliged to revoke the company’s master security license due to the event…
When’s money held on trust and when is it not? It’s a question that’s probably exercised the minds of FTI Consulting’s John Park and Kelly Anne Trenfield at least on occasion over the last couple of years in their roles as liquidators of claims assessor Stream Group (Aust) Pty Ltd (SGA) and NSW Supreme Court judge Ashley Black yesterday provided an answer. In his judgment In the…