Creditors

Hall Chadwick partners’ fee fights on two fronts

McGrathNicol’s Rob Brauer. Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. Insolvency practitioners at Hall Chadwick are enmeshed in at least two fee fights at present and the common denominator in both is Sydney practice head Richard Albarran. iNO readers will be familiar with the travails being experienced by Albarran and outgoing Melbourne partner Richard Lawrence in respect of work they did on Tauro Capital (Tauro), an appointment they…


Toplace creditors reject challengers

dVT Group partner Antony Resnick. dVT Group partner Suelen McCallum. For those attending online, sound drop outs, screen freezes and a constant hubbub of background blather plagued much of Wednesday’s first meeting of creditors of Toplace Pty Ltd, but joint administrators and meeting co-chairs Suelen McCallum and Antony Resnick can take comfort from the fact that despite the glitches, creditors refused to back their only…


“friendlies” talk stalks Toplace administrators

dVT Group co-founder Riad Tayeh It’s never helpful when a government official casts aspersions upon insolvency practitioners two days out from a first meeting of creditors of a controversy-plagued firm whose founder has fled the jurisdiction. That however is the scenario facing dVT Group’s Suelen McCallum and Antony Resnick as they prepare for the first meeting of creditors of controversial construction firm Toplace Pty Ltd…


Appeals court finds 530A Report “misleading”

Lowe Lippmann partner Gideon Rathner. It had to take the long road but a persistent creditor has been vindicated in its bid to have a deed of company arrangement (DoCA) terminated after the Federal Court of Appeal last week found that the deed had been executed on the basis of materially misleading information. The impugned information was contained in a Section 530A Report provided to…



Unhelpful administrators cop costs penalty

Hogan Sprowles partner Michael Hogan. They may have recommended a dog of DoCA and been punted as a consequence but two Sydney practitioners are lucky they don’t have more wounds to lick. On Monday, NSW Supreme Court judge Ashley Black made costs orders in respect of Minle Wine Negociants of Australia Pty Ltd (Minle) after last week terminating a deed of company arrangement (DoCA) and…


Administrators ousted as judge ditches dubious DoCA

Hogan Sprowles partner Michael Hogan. A decision from the NSW Supreme Court this week shines an unforgiving light on the handling of an administration by two Sydney practitioners who’ve been ousted after a creditor applied to have a deed of company arrangement (DoCA) terminated. “… unusually, in my experience, Mr Hogan indicated in evidence that the Administrators would now not seek to recover remuneration beyond…


Fine Cotton-style finagle dredged up to discredit

Menzies Advisory’s Michael Caspaney. Victorian liquidator Peter Goodin. It’s past indiscretions at 10 paces in the Federal Court this week as interests associated with the Modscape Group continue to do everything they can to prevent the liquidator who had concerns about their 2017 restructure being paid the fees he earned and the expenses he incurred during his tumultuous, 11 month tenure. “Mr Luntz does not…


VAs ousted after backing doubtful DoCA

Mackay Goodwin principal Domenic Calabretta. Mackay Goodwin director Edwin Narayan. Two Sydney practitioners who tried to stall a winding up so they could put a DoCA proposal to creditors have lost the application and the gig after a court refused to adjourn the hearing and sided with the petitioning creditor’s preferred nominee as liquidator. The bid for an adjournment in the matter of The Deputy…


ATO loses stomach for fight with ousted liquidators

Hall Chadwick’s Richard Lawrence. Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. The latest chapter in the fight by Richard Albarran and Richard Lawrence to be paid outstanding remuneration for their time as liquidators of start-up accelerator Tauro Capital (Tauro) could be cut short if Tauro creditors like the latest solution being proposed. Today it’s expected that the current liquidators of Tauro will distribute a report that includes a…