January: iNO’s 2019 coverage kicked off with a story related to the topic that had dominated our headlines in December 2018 – namely the decision by Jirsch Sutherland to terminate the employment of partner Amanda Young days before Christmas. In the near term aftermath Young’s brother and a former managing partner of Jirsch Sutherland Sule Arnautovic resigned as liquidator of St Gregory’s Armenian School Inc,…
Queensland IP Bill Cotter has been on a wild ride these last few months since being appointed voluntary administrator of Delta Law Pty Ltd, an incorporated legal practice, on August 1. Cotter was first approached on July 16. Referrer James Loel and Delta director Quinton Rozario were interested in discussing a possible appointment as liquidator. In legal proceedings brought by interests seeking to oust Rozario,…
Tony McGrath. Jason Preston. If nothing else the last few months have shown that there’s still enough cash left in HIH to attract those adept at throttling a profit from a corporate corpse. This week iNO listened as lawyers for class action plaintiffs came before NSW Supreme Court judge Ashley Black to progress a new claim against HIH for misleading and deceptive conduct. The shareholder…
BRI Ferrier’s Andrew Cummings. You know the fates are against you when, in resisting the winding up of a company to which you’ve been appointed voluntary administrator (VA), a court erroneously inserts the names of rivals in orders that apply to yourself. Such was the experience yesterday for Jirsch Sutherland’s Trent Devine and Andrew Spring, who discovered – following inquiries by iNO – that the…
Hall Chadwick’s Steve Gladman. It has taken time but this week the NSW Supreme Court of Appeal delivered its verdict in respect of a contentious casting vote exercised by Hall Chadwick’s Steve Gladman at the second meeting of creditors of Glenfyne Farms, back on October 9, 2018. That vote, which for practical purposes defeated an attempt by Glenfyne’s major creditor to replace Gladman as liquidator,…
Deloitte’s Tim Norman. Plutus Payroll Australia (PPA) liquidators Deloitte’s Tim Norman and Sal Algeri seem to be inching closer to a point when they can apply the blowtorch to various individuals connected with this most notorious of tax-skimming scandals but given the assetless state of the entities to which they are appointed, getting there is costing a bomb. In the NSW Supreme court yesterday, lawyers…
Louise Thomson: first trustee to be referred to disciplinary committee twice. Image Veritas Advisory. With apologies to Oscar Wilde, iNO was recently moved to observe that while being referred to a disciplinary committee once might be considered a misfortune, twice looks like carelessness. Certainly it will be unfortunate if it transpires that misfortune is behind AFSA’s most recent referral of Louise Thomson to a committee…
Crinitis’ VA Graeme Beattie. Worrells’ Graeme Beattie has been careful in his public statements regarding the collapse of the Crinitis restaurant group. He’s reportedly spoken of difficult trading conditions and the closure of poor performing sites to preserve value. He’s quoted as referring to the possibility that some portion of the business might be salvaged via sale as a going concern or if not a…
PKF’s Brad Tonks. Imagine, if you are so predisposed, a day when the ASIC database communicates with itself. Information uploaded dissolves instantly into a cyber solution. There it’s compared with every relevant byte of meaning already saturating ASIC’s deep reservoir of data. At quantum computing speeds, the digital litmus satisfies itself, classifying the intel as compliant with the myriad rules and regulations that have been…
iNO OPINION BPS Recovery’s Mitchell Ball. When iNO read through the reasons provided last week in support of a 12 month curtailment of liquidator Mitchell Ball’s right to accept new appointments, what was demonstrated very clearly was that discipline can be a complicated affair. This was no straightforward suspension. This was discipline of convenience. While Ball was banned from accepting any appointment for a year…