KPMG partner James Dampney. KPMG’s Peter Gothard. Electing to flog a chilled foods business to its main competitor has come back to bite current and ex-KPMG partners after they failed this week to have examinations summonses issued by the former owner of the business dismissed. On Wednesday in the NSW Supreme Court Judge Kate Williams ruled that Peter Gothard, James Dampney and former KPMG senior…
I&R Advisory partner David Ross. Hall Chadwick partner Blair Pleash. There’s admirable persistence and then there’s futile pursuit. iNO would not presume to opine on where the line between the two lies and in fact, armed with the recent judgment of Ross (Liquidator) in the matter of Print Mail Logistics (International) Pty Ltd (In Liq) v Elias [2022] FCA 296, speculation is unnecessary. The judgement,…
KordaMentha’s Mark Korda. Can there be any greater threat to reputation than judicial authority publishing slanders whilst cloaked in absolute privilege? Certainly insolvency industry titan Mark Korda might not think so. Last week the man whose reputation as one of Australia’s preeminent insolvency practitioners and restructuring advisors has been forged over 40 years at the sharp end of corporate distress had his name besmirched in…
Olvera Advisors’ Kate Barnet. Olvera Advisors’ Damien Hodgkinson. There would have been some fist pumping – as an expression of triumph of course – in the Barton Circuit offices of the FEG Recovery Unit last week after a judge ruled that the Commonwealth, subrogated to the rights of employees of a company in liquidation, took priority ahead of a secured creditor in respect of competing…
Pitcher Partners’ Andrew Yeo. Victorian liquidator Ross McDermott. It’s been some time but the wearisome tale of Lonnex, a company connected to the late Dr Geoffrey Edelstein, could be at an end after Pitcher Partners’ Andrew Yeo obtained court approval for a deal that ends the ongoing scrap between major creditor the ATO and Lonnex’s former liquidators. Details of this dispute’s seeming resolution were delivered…
Safe Harbour review panel chair Genevieve Sexton. Duff & Phelps-Kroll senior advisor Steve Parbery. The panel charged with reviewing the insolvent trading Safe Harbour provisions has called for a root and branch review of Australia’s insolvency laws, which it said are perceived by many even in the industry as an “an impenetrable quagmire that is scary, complex and unknown.” “Fundamental to such a review is…
Hall Chadwick partner Sule Arnautovic. WLP Restructuring’s Glenn Livingstone. Another wholly uncelestial body is being positioned to take up orbit around the Jabiru Satellite and Newsat administrations with proceedings commenced in the NSW Supreme Court this month to appoint Hall Chadwick partner Sule Arnautovic as special purpose liquidator (SPL). On Monday the applicant’s counsel David Sulan SC told Justice Ashley Black that Jabiru and NewSat…
Aston Chace principal Vincent Pirina. “A hearing is a hearing,” the judge said. “It is not an opportunity for parties to seek judicial advice”. And with those words the lawyers acting for Aston Chace principal Vincent Pirina knew instantly how little wriggle room they’ll be afforded when next they come before NSW Supreme Court judge Kate Williams to prosecute their client’s claim for fees. “It…
Retired dVT Group co-founder Anton de Vries dVT Group partner Riad Tayeh The High Court of Australia has quietly restarted an unwelcome deadline for dVT Group founders Anton de Vries and Riad Tayeh. By refusing the pair’s application for special leave to appeal against a judgment of the Supreme Court of Victoria’s Court of Appeal in the matter of Timbercorp Finance Pty Ltd, the High…
BPS Recovery’s Dave Sampson. KPMG’s Max Donnelly. Bungling by the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA) has forced two bankruptcy trustees to court in a bid to restore estates to their rightful appointees. Later today the Federal Court will hear an application by KPMG bankruptcy veteran Max Donnelly for declarations that he is the trustee in bankruptcy of the estate of Jason Maurie Nowytarger but not…