Grant Thornton’s Phil Campbell-Wilson. Long shots in the insolvency caper can be costly. Just ask the two Grant Thornton partners who sought the adjournment of a hearing of a winding up application on the day the winding up application was potentially to be heard. The reason for this heroic and 59th minute of an 11th hour intervention was simple. Phil Cambell-Wilson and John McInerney had…
KPMG’s Will Colwell. KPMG’s Tim Michael. When a secured creditor funding deed administrators gets told that the $250,000 it handed over to fund a section 444GA application is insufficient because the deed administrators’ costs have absorbed it, well, you can imagine that the relationship might become a little strained. Certainly it could be expected that an at least temporary chill descended in respect of exchanges…
Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. Hall Chadwick’s Richard Lawrence. A judge has added a lick of Bitrex to the unpalatable pill Richard Albarran and Richard Lawrence are being forced to stomach after creditors removed them as voluntary administers (VAs) of Bluechain Pty Ltd. Last Thursday Justice Jim Delaney of the Supreme Court of Victoria ordered that the Hall Chadwick pair pay the costs of an application…
Grant Thornton’s Phil Campbell-Wilson. On the Sabbath the director gaveth, and on the Monday a judge tooketh away, though not before querying what he perceived as a lack of “professional skepticism” exhibited by one of Grant Thornton’s top insolvency and restructuring partners. The occasion was an application to adjourn a winding up hearing launched by the very recently appointed voluntary administrators (VAs) of Ming Tian…
Hamilton Murphy principal Richard Rohrt. Hamilton Murphy’s Stephen Dixon. Hamilton Murphy’s Richard Rohrt and Stephen Dixon have a Ferrari to sell now that they’ve been appointed receivers and managers over the property, assets and undertaking of The Rose Guerin and Partners Trust but getting paid for their labours won’t be straightforward after a judge ripped ’em a newie in respect of their “totally disproportionate” fees….
Pitcher Partners’ Andrew Yeo. Andrew Yeo has copped some judicial stick for opinions expressed in an affidavit the Pitcher Partners’ rain maker filed in defence of proceedings brought by Norm Carey, founder of the long since collapsed Westpoint Property Group. In a recent judgment WA Supreme Court Master Craig Sanderson said that Yeo should have kept his views on the legitimacy of Carey’s action to…
Worrells partner Jason Bettles. Editor’s Note: On Friday, August 18, 2023 Justice Brigitte Markovic of the Federal Court of Australia dismissed ASIC’s case against liquidator Jason Bettles and ordered the regulator to pay Bettles’ costs. Worrells’ Jason Bettles has had another win in his ongoing fight with ASIC, which throws money at poorly articulated misconduct cases knowing the costs of setbacks are recoverable via Industry…
McGrathNicol’s Jason Preston. McGrathNicol’s Kathy Sozou. McGrathNicol’s Jason Preston is drawing excruciatingly close to concluding the two decades long winding up of the HIH insurance group and as has emerged this week, the end can’t come soon enough with hefty administration costs termiting what funds remain. “We have obtained orders to allow the destruction of the records 90 days after deregistration of the head company…
Hall Chadwick’s Blair Pleash. Liquidator David Ross. Following the delivery of judgment in Ross, in the matter of Print Mail Logistics (International) Pty Ltd (in liq) v Elias [2021] FCA 419 lawyers across the land will be pondering how they can avoid having Justice John Reeves anywhere near their applications in respect of alleged uncommercial, unreasonable and insolvent transactions. How to insulate expert witnesses will…
Smith Hancock partner Mike Smith. Smith Hancock partner Rommel Alfonso. A proposal that would’ve seen liquidators Mike Smith and Erwin “Rommel” Alfonso paid $85,275.07 in satisfaction of exisiting and future remuneration claims and costs has been crushed after a judge refused to terminate a winding up despite the applicant’s offer to discharge the company’s debts. As is evident In the matter of Kele Group Holdings…