WA Insolvency Solutions’ Greg Prout. WA Insolvency Solutions’ Jimmy Trpcevski. The moral of this particular tale is that if you want a judge to approve your application to significantly extend the convening period, don’t starve them of detail. “It must be understood that requests for extensions of the convening period under s 439A are not simply available for the asking.” Supreme Court of West Australia…
Grahame Ward. Image Mackay Goodwin. Domenic Calabretta. Image: Mackay Goodwin. Grahame Ward recently threw down the gauntlet to ASIC’s AI-backed monitoring regime when he lodged no less than three declarations of independence, relevant relationships and indemnities (DIRRIs) for the same company in less than three weeks. The defining characteristic of this effusion of filings was that each DIRRI identified a different referrer in respect of…
KPMG auditor Adam Twemlow. For a man who may soon find himself the target of yet another class action, KPMG auditor Adam Twemlow displayed a generally unflappable demeanour yesterday during several hours in a Federal Court witness box. The Partner In Charge of KPMG Enterprise, Metro Region in Brisbane was the last examinee for 2023 as part of public examinations brought by dentist investors burned…
Deloitte’s Luci Palaghia. Deloitte’s Tim Heenan. When it comes to making disclosures to demonstrate independence, possessing intimate knowledge about a corporation’s affairs can create problems, as would seem to be the case following further revelations about the collapse of the All Smiles dental chain. Acquiring all that knowledge can’t be achieved without a lot of involvement and for those insolvency practitioners registered to take on…
Cathro & Partners’ Andrew Blundell. RSM’s Richard Stone. Cathro Partners Andrew Blundell and Simon Cathro must have thought that they had a good chance of retaining their appointments as voluntary administrators (VAs) of failed chartered accounting firm Talbots Pty Ltd when proceedings commenced yesterday morning. Those proceedings constituted the hearing of an application brought by the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT) for the immediate winding…
PKF partner Simon Thorn. A certain insolvency practitioner may attract some unwanted attention after ignoring forgery claims that a court has now upheld. In the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, Justice Kate Williams dismissed the practitioner’s application for orders validating his appointment as administrator of Premier Energy Resources Pty Ltd (PER), primarily on the basis that to do so her honour said would “give the imprimatur…
Allens partner Phil Blaxill. WLP Restructuring’s Glenn Livingstone. Liquidators receiving letters from a lawyer asking for this or that is no rare thing, but when such a letter specifies information relating to companies to which the liquidator has never been appointed well, that ain’t so common. What is common though is the try on, and the correspondence Glenn Livingstone and Scott Pascoe received on September…
Deloitte’s Luci Palaghia. Deloitte’s Tim Heenan. The public examination of the affairs of the Totally Smiles Group which kicked off in the Federal Court this week is set to explore various issues relating to the ASX-listed dental chain’s demise, including the influence of the company’s bank and the independence of its administrators. Deloitte partners Luci Palaghia and Tim Heenan were formally appointed by the Group’s…
HLB Mann Judd partner Greg Quinn. West Australian liquidator Greg Quinn has secured the result he wanted following a court application to resolve a clear conflict. The HLB Mann Judd partner is the liquidator of Flexi Staff Pty Ltd (Flexi Staff), as well as the liquidator of its related entity, Texpoint Pty Ltd (Texpoint). “A liquidator has a conflict of duties in exercising any power…
Jill Stewart, Professional & Financial Lines leader – Willis Towers Watson After more than 30 years Willis Towers Watson (WTW) has seemingly concluded that it can no longer make a buck offering insurance to businesses that have been placed in external administration. Earlier this month the global insurance behemoth acted on that conclusion by shutting Open Cover, its popular automatic insurance facility for entities placed…