Despite a court finding there was no phoenix activity ASIC persists in identifying one current and one former liquidator as having been prosecuted for phoenix activity. Once ASIC’s bid for an inquiry into ex-liquidator Andrew Wily and current practitioner David Hurst was dismissed with orders that the regulator also pay the respondents’ costs some among INO’s audience began to articulate the inevitable question. Will ASIC’s…
Don’t be fooled he’s thrilled. Liquidator David Hurst (R) with lawyer Joe Scarcella. An application for a judicial inquiry into the conduct of Andrew Wily and David Hurst has been dismissed with the judge describing the corporate regulator’s pursuit of Wily as vexatious. Delivering judgment in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, Justice Paul Brereton apologised for the time it had taken him to provide a…
Pitcher Partners WA chief Bryan Hughes. The Supreme Court of West Australia has ruled that an appointment of an administrator is still valid even if not all the directors of the insolvent entity could have made a determination about solvency at the time. The ruling was made in Bryan Kevin Hughes as joint and several liquidators of Traditional Therapy Clinics Limited (In liq) [2019] WASC…
Ex-PPB Advisory partner David John Leigh. Former PPB Advisory Brisbane partner David John Leigh, 56 of Sherwood in Queensland has been sentenced to seven years gaol after pleading guilty late last year to stealing $800,000. Leigh was sentenced last Friday in the Brisbane Magistrates Court and must serve a minimum 22 months before being eligible for parole. The three charges relate to the theft of…
The dollars have clearly been pouring into ASIC’s industry funding account in recent days. How else to explain the halving in the sum of liquidator levies in arrears between last week and yesterday? On Friday the regulator alerted the profession that while invoices issued to “the registered liquidators sub-sector totalled approximately $6.8 million”, it had as at March 18, 2019 collected approximately $6.4m. Even a…
Cor Cordis partner Mark Hutchins. It can’t be too often that an insolvency practitioner is responsible for the laying of criminal charges against his or her own referrer, but the resume of Cor Cordis partner Mark Hutchins now boasts this curious distinction. This follows the news that a company director and two pre-insolvency advisors appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court last week on charges including…
Deregistered Trustee David John Leigh. Don’t you love this initiative by the regulators to make registered practitioners responsible if a disgraced ex-trustee or liquidator weedles their way back into the game? The thought occurred to INO following Wednesday’s announcement by ASIC in regards to David John Leigh, the former PPB Advisory partner who misappropriated $800,000 from a liquidation account between July and November in 2017. The committee…
Fees excessive – Liquidator John Sheahan. Remuneration is a topic never far from the frontal lobe of INO’s audience and thanks to liquidators John Sheahan and Ian Lock and Federal Court judge Tony Besanko, 2019 has started with a decision guaranteed to get synapses firing. On Monday Justice Besanko delivered his judgment in Lock, in the matter of Cedenco JV Australia Pty Ltd (in liq) (No…
Amanda Young. ASIC is taking no chances that Amanda Young might inadvertently succumb to a bout of her oft-professed wanderlust, obtaining orders requiring the ex-Jirsch Sutherland partner to surrender her passport. As revealed in In the matter of Amanda Young [2018] NSWSC 2012 the corporate regulator has only just commenced an investigation into the alleged misappropriation by Young of almost $240,000. INO broke the news on…
Amanda Young. Suspended liquidator Amanda Young-Arnautovic has lodged a claim against Jirsch Sutherland in the Fair Work Commission (FWC) after the insolvency firm terminated her employment before Christmas amid allegations of fraud. Insolvency News Online (INO) has learned that Young-Arnautovic is making the claim under the Fair Work Act’s general protections provision which relate to workplace rights, broadly described as employment entitlements and the freedom to exercise and enforce those…