Morton + Lee Insolvency’s Gavin Morton. No practitioner likes being replaced just when the labour of administration looks set to moderate courtesy of a deed proposal but unsecureds can be restive beasts, particularly when they are the ATO. Last month it was the turn of Queensland liquidator Gavin Morton to test the Commonwealth debt collector’s patience in relation to a Deed of Company Arrangement (DoCA)…
FEG Active Creditor Recovery Unit Director Henry Carr. There may be much for circulating asset aficionados to ponder in the event that the Commonwealth – through its FEG Recovery Division – commences proceedings against the former receivers of Castel Electronics Pty Ltd. iNO says if because at this point all the Commonwealth has done is obtain orders ensuring that the company cannot be deregistered by…
Lowe Lippmann partner Gideon Rathner. Lowe Lippmann director Matt Sweeney. When writing about legal actions brought against administrators iNO is often reminded of that famous line uttered by the incorrigible Roger Sterling from the Madmen series who said: “Advertisng would be a great business, except for the clients.” This week and not for the first time, we found ourselves musing about how great a business…
Olvera Advisors’ Kate Barnet. Olvera Advisors’ Damien Hodgkinson. There would have been some fist pumping – as an expression of triumph of course – in the Barton Circuit offices of the FEG Recovery Unit last week after a judge ruled that the Commonwealth, subrogated to the rights of employees of a company in liquidation, took priority ahead of a secured creditor in respect of competing…
Pitcher Partners’ Andrew Yeo. Victorian liquidator Ross McDermott. It’s been some time but the wearisome tale of Lonnex, a company connected to the late Dr Geoffrey Edelstein, could be at an end after Pitcher Partners’ Andrew Yeo obtained court approval for a deal that ends the ongoing scrap between major creditor the ATO and Lonnex’s former liquidators. Details of this dispute’s seeming resolution were delivered…
Safe Harbour review panel chair Genevieve Sexton. Duff & Phelps-Kroll senior advisor Steve Parbery. The panel charged with reviewing the insolvent trading Safe Harbour provisions has called for a root and branch review of Australia’s insolvency laws, which it said are perceived by many even in the industry as an “an impenetrable quagmire that is scary, complex and unknown.” “Fundamental to such a review is…
Retired dVT Group co-founder Anton de Vries dVT Group partner Riad Tayeh The High Court of Australia has quietly restarted an unwelcome deadline for dVT Group founders Anton de Vries and Riad Tayeh. By refusing the pair’s application for special leave to appeal against a judgment of the Supreme Court of Victoria’s Court of Appeal in the matter of Timbercorp Finance Pty Ltd, the High…
SV Partners Perth Director Malcolm Field. One creditor wanted his proof of debt admitted in full. The liquidator admitted it in part. The rival creditor wanted it rejected completely. What judge wouldn’t invoke the Goldilocks premise? In this case the judicial eminence so moved was the Supreme Court of West Australia’s Master Craig Sanderson. His honour had been called upon to resolve a dispute between…
Deloitte partner David Lombe. FEG Active Creditor Recovery Unit Director Henry Carr. Documents filed in the Federal Court last week show that the FEG “Active Creditor” Recovery Unit has not missed the opportunity to remind the voluntary administrators (VAs) of Probuild of the need for candour when applying to courts to extend convening periods and personal liability protections. The Deloitte foursome appointed as VAs of…
Hall Chadwick’s Richard Lawrence. PKF’s Paul Allen. When liquidators get punted by creditors who then block payment of their unpaid fees, you know that the change of appointees represents not so much an end but a beginning. For Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran and Richard Lawrence, their role switched to that of the out-of-pocket ex-liquidators of Tauro Capital at a meeting of the company’s creditors on…