Wexted Advisors partner Andrew McCabe. Wexted Advisors founder and principal Joe Hayes. Wexted Advisors’ Andrew McCabe knew he was in a difficult position back in January when he came to chair the second meeting of creditors of the Comlek Group. As the largest single creditor with a claim in excess of $9 million the Queensland Revenue Office (QRO) had already made it clear to McCabe…
Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. Barrister Geoff McDonald. Richard Albarran wasn’t going to let being a defendant in a marathon legal battle get in the way of attending this year’s INSOL event, particularly when the conference’s location in Tokyo meant that the Hall Chadwick Sydney partner would be in a convenient time zone when it came time to be questioned. That turn came yesterday when the…
Hall Chadwick WA partner Cameron Shaw. GTS Advisory director Mathieu Tribut. Much of the blood presently thickening our economic waters comes courtesy of failed building and construction firms, with wounded players going belly up thanks to rising interest rates, spiralling labour and materials costs and the return of the tax office to the fray. Inevitably, this means more referrals to practitioners and more competition for…
Exonerated: Liquidator Jason Bettles. Queensland liquidator Jason Bettles might have been naive but he was never complicit. That’s the conclusion of Federal Court judge Brigitte Markovic who in delivering judgment in Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Bettles [2023] FCA 975 has written another chapter in the burgeoning Apocrypha of failed litigation commenced by the corporate regulator. “A review of his evidence and the way…
PwC Director Wil Honner. iNO acknowledges it’s a longish bow but posits the question anyway. Is the tax office reducing its exposure to appointees from PwC due to the stink emanating from the global firm’s Australian tax practice? This question occurred to iNO during the hearing in the Federal Court yesterday of an application for the winding up of One Asphalt (NSW) Pty Ltd (One…
Deloitte partner Sean Holmes. Cor Cordis partner Tom Birch. While it might appear that today’s edition comprises a “Focus on the West” and a spotlight on Deloitte partner Sean Holmes, we can assure iNO readers that it’s a coincidence. Unlike our other yarn involving Holmes’s efforts to wind up a Ponzi scheme based on algorithmic trading of foreign exchange, this old economy tale deals with…
Deloitte partner Matthew Donnelly. Deloitte partner Sean Holmes. Getting court approval for remuneration and guidance on how to distribute trust monies to unit holders is one thing. Getting the court to approve your application for orders winding up an unregistered managed investment scheme is something else again, as two Deloitte insolvency and restructuring partners recently discovered. “In my view, the plaintiffs do not have standing…
KordaMentha partner John Mouawad. A recent judgment of the Supreme Court of Victoria demonstrates the unique challenges faced by administrators of digital trading platforms and how those challenges can contribute to the cost of the administration, especially when crypto currency is the asset traded. “The administration of the Companies is further complicated by the parallel bankruptcy proceedings that are being conducted in the United States….
Chifley Advisory’s Gavin Moss. Based on the most recent available figures, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) is the major creditor in 80 per cent of Small Business Restructurings (SBRs) and is inclined to support the proposals in a majority of cases. When that acceptance is refused it’s worth understanding why. Exceptions generally prove the rule. In the case of Blue Zebra Digital Pty Limited (BZD)…