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. The corporate regulator confirmed this week that its case against Worrells partner Jason Bettles remains unchanged and on foot in the wake of criminal charges being filed in the Brisbane…
There’s one liquidator who must have been overjoyed last week to learn that his defence of an application to review his admittance of a proof of debt, whilst unsuccessful, was reasonable and appropriate. Being reasonable and appropriate is great to have in the bank, even if the validation is soured by orders to pay the costs of the applicant who’s challenge to your admittance of…
Deloitte’s Sal Algeri. Deloitte’s Tim Norman. “At the moment it seems to me that this application has descended into chaos” the judge said, and at that point the inexpertly tailored bid for suppression orders in the matter of Plutus Payroll came apart like a cheap suit. It was yesterday morning in the court of Justice Ashley Black, and an application was being brought by lawyers…
Morton + Lee Insolvency’s Gavin Morton. There must always be a little more spice attaching to a public examination for both liquidator and examinee when the latter was the former’s referrer. A little more relish too perhaps. Following receipt of the summons to appear the referrer may well have thought: ‘Well don’t expect any more work from us old bean’, or words to that effect….
Worrells Con Kokkinos. iNO would not presume to speculate on whether it’s poor judgment, an entrepreneurial appetite for risk or sheer desperation that compels registered liquidators to sometimes accept appointments as voluntary administrators (VA) in situations where it would seem, even to your correspondent’s lay understanding, that only a liquidator will do. Such thoughts occurred however as iNO considered the very recent winding up of…
Rodgers Reidy director Geoff Reidy. Geoff Reidy must’ve near drowned earlier this month, engulfed by a wave of satisfaction after winning an order for indemnity costs against a disgruntled director who’d sought to portray the Rodgers Reidy principal in terms not entirely favourable. The smear attempt failed of course, crashing impotently against the seawall of logic personified by NSW Supreme Court chief justice in equity…
McGrathNicol’s Anthony Connelly. McGrathNicol’s Jamie Harris. You don’t have to delve too deeply into Justice John Griffith’s August 17 ruling on a failed application to appoint a reviewing liquidator to conclude that the incumbent appointees probably didn’t lost much sleep worrying about what any RevLiq might’ve found in respect of their sale of the assets of Battery Minerals Resources (BMR). McGrathNicol’s Anthony Connelly and Jamie…
Online News Corporation’s Jarrod Sierocki. Insolvency practitioners tend to have well honed instincts for an opportunity but iNO can only wonder what Hall Chadwick’s Ginette Muller and Insolvency Guardian’s Jarrod Sierocki have identified that’s convinced them to invest in the digital media space. Along with Sydney-based publicity veteran Rolene Markson, Muller and Sierocki are, iNO has learned, in the process of fund raising for Online…
iNO Priority Cor Cordis partner Barry Wight. Cor Cordis partner Rachel Burdett. It may be an unspoken maxim that fee approvals coming from creditors are the best approvals but if there is an example of an exception proving a rule superior to that which was recently granted to a pair of Cor Cordis partners iNO would like to hear of it. The occasion for this…
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…