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ARITA, ASIC, ATO, Discipline, Regulation/Legislation 17 August 2018

Industry acts as Treasury releases phoenix reforms

Federal Treasury yesterday released its Reforms to combat illegal phoenix activity – Draft Legislation and the insolvency industry’s key association produced a summary of the exposure draft’s key points and invited members to provide feedback for inclusion in the Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association’s (ARITA) submission. The reforms – which are a centrepiece of Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer’s anti-phoenix crusade, will: Create new phoenix offences to target those…

ATO, Bankruptcy, Judgment, Liquidators, Trustees 3 August 2018

Pitchers pair affirm reforms in Federal Court fight

Pitcher Partners Andrew Yeo and Gess Rambaldi have extracted a decision from the Federal Court that goes a long way to affirming the insolvency law reforms dealing with causes of action and what insolvency practitioners can do with them. “The decision hopefully supports the closely related law reforms from September 2017,” Yeo and Rambaldi told Insolvency News Online (INO). “Prior to the changes, the liquidator…

ATO, Liquidators 3 August 2018

Have tax rogues cut liquidators out of phoenixing?

Maybe it’s a good thing but among the most glaring absences from the carefully-crafted commentary accompanying news of the latest raids on tax rogues were any references to liquidators. After more than 250 ATO officers and police raided 11 commercial and residential premises in Victoria on Wednesday the ATO released a statement in which it described the targets of the raids as rogue tax agents who…

ATO, Judgment, Liquidators 20 July 2018

ATO’s bid for 10 year ban heading for trial

Embattled Sydney liquidator David Iannuzzi is headed for trial after Federal Court judge Nye Perram delivered judgement this week on an application launched by the tax office for a judicial inquiry into Iannuzzi’s conduct. The tax personage wants Iannuzzi banned for 10 years and restrained from working as an insolvency practitioner for the same period. For good measure it also wants the court to order Iannuzzi…

ATO, Discipline, FEG, Liquidators, Public Examinations 22 June 2018

Liquidators and ex-Labor MP to be grilled by FEG

Along with a luminary of the Labor party’s past, Veritas Advisory’s David Iannuzzi and Steve Naidenov have been summoned to appear for public examination in August in relation to the liquidation of the MK Floors Group. Regular INO readers may recall that after Iannuzzi and Naidenov were appointed voluntary administrators (VAs) of the MK Floors Group on October 10, 2016 they had to fend off…

ARITA, ATO, Discipline, Liquidators 8 June 2018

ARITA expels third member in two months

Whilst INO is loath to encourage a perception that it should change its masthead to “Expulsion Monthly”, it behoves us to report that the Australian Restructuring Insolvency & Turnaround Association (ARITA) has cast out another member, the third such eructation since April. The latest to fall foul of the ARITA Code of Professional Practice is Queensland practitioner Justin James Cadman, who readers may recall was…

AFSA, ASIC, ATO, Bankruptcy, Costs, Discipline, FEG, Liquidators, Litigation Funding, Regulation/Legislation, Social/Professional 25 May 2018

Promotion: AIIP Conference tackles big questions

Some of the profession’s most pressing questions will be explored and potential solutions debated at the inaugural Association of Independent Insolvency Practitioners (AIIP) Conference to be held next month in Canberra. Questions around safe harbour; pre-packs; litigation funding, law reform and what the future might have in store will all be canvassed at the Disruption in the Insolvency Industry Conference on June 28 and 29…

ATO, Discipline, Liquidators, Regulation/Legislation, Social/Professional 27 April 2018

Iannuzzi inquiry bid kicks off with assault on evidence

The much anticipated hearing of the Commissioner of Taxation’s application for a Federal Court inquiry into Sydney liquidator David Iannuzzi commenced this week with his defence team signalling a challenge to the admissibility of the ATO’s evidence. Iannuzzi is facing a multi prong attack from the ATO, which is seeking to have the court inquire into his conduct; an order that he be banned from…

ATO, Liquidations, Liquidators, Voidable Transactions 23 March 2018

PPB wait as Plutus Payroll fraud accused sue insurer

As PPB Advisory’s Glenn Livingstone and Steve Parbery look on in their capacity as provisional liquidators of Synep Pty Ltd, one of the men accused of involvement in Australia’s largest company tax fraud has shown himself to be an optimist if nothing else, having commenced legal action in the Federal Court against the provider of his directors and officers (D&O) insurance policy. Jay Onley, who…

ATO, Liquidations, Liquidators, Litigation, Regulation/Legislation 21 March 2018

Cor Cordis pair overlooked as ATO intervenes

We can’t be certain at this early stage of our Sinvestigation but the recent move by the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT) on the incumbent liquidators of Italian Prestige Jewellery bears a passing resemblance to the DCoT’s GST-avoidance case against ABC Refinery. Orders handed down by Justice Brigitte Markovic yesterday in the Federal Court reveal that the DCoT has applied to have “proposed additional liquidators”…