SiN’s sometimes chastised for focussing only on bad news, though we all know that except in the most extraordinary of circumstances – the second coming perhaps – a good news event is no news. Unless it’s an event that overturns bad news. The issue of insolvency practitioner pay has in recent times been a topic that’s seen a major good news event – liquidator Cliff…
Clive Palmer’s efforts to prevent John Park and his colleagues from FTI Consulting from paying themselves for their time as voluntary administrators (VAs) of Queensland Nickel have come to naught. On Wednesday the Supreme Court of Queensland made an order indemnifying the four FTI Consulting partners from any liability for any negligence, default, breach of trust or breach of duty relating to the payment by…
This case pitting Tasmanian businesswoman Jan Cameron against KordaMentha’s David Winterbottom and Rahul Goyal might hold some lessons for other insolvency practitioners taking appointments from unconventional creditors. One lesson might be that when promising one’s appointor to undertake a stock take, count the stock! The other might be that when contemplating an appointment from a secured creditor that’s not a bank or similar, additional due diligence pays….
The minutes of a recent meeting of creditors of Project 1876 Pty Ltd reveal that the Australian Tax Office (ATO) remains undecided on the question of whether it should fund liquidators Ozem Kassem and Jason Tang to go after a $12.2 million voidable payment made to the owners of the Dyldam construction group. Kassem and Tang were appointed voluntary administrators by Project 1876’s director Maria Fayad on July 1, 2013…
After a setback on fees the question may arise as to whether it’s best to cut one’s losses or go double or nothing when the question turns to the extent to which a receiver can rely on the right to an indemnity. Helm Advisory director Adam Preiner recently chose the latter. Acting Supreme Court Judge Reg Barrett yesterday delivered a judgment which illustrates why one should…
Well the beast of ad valorem has been subdued and the curmudgeonly impulse that gave it too free a rein extinguished. If liquidators aren’t treating their staff to extra libation this afternoon then they do not appreciate the value of what the NSW Supreme Court of Appeal yesterday preserved. Just after 10:15am Sydney liquidator Cliff Sanderson learned that his appeal in the matter of Sanderson as…
Mali Thaggard and NatWest Finance are engaged in a tussle over funds connected to the voluntary administration (VA) of Shepherd Group Services (SGS), the resolution of which should be instructive at least in terms of highlighting the critical issue of registering security interests on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR). On Monday Thaggard – who left TPH insolvency to set up under the banner Australia Business…
A dispute over dollars is shedding light not only on the kinds of partnership arrangements liquidators are inclined to enter into when working together but also on the amount of coin mid-tier practitioners pocket. The protagonists are dVT’s Antony Resnick and Chifley Advisory’s Gavin Moss who are disputing entitlement to monies following the collapse of relations and the termination of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the…
Sydney liquidator Adam Preiner has had a claim for $124,065.70 in remuneration claim halved, with a judge this week ruling that the Helm Advisory director’s right to take his fees and expenses from the assets of corporate trustee Minmxt Holding was not superior to the rights of caveators, whose cooperation Preiner had been forced to secure before he could sell the trust’s only asset. Preiner took…
The insolvency grapevine – always well fertilised – is blossoming as the Department of Employment’s FEG Recovery Unit progresses its offensive against liquidators whom it regards as having inappropriately levied general liquidation expenses against circulating asset realisations. ARITA chief John Winter yesterday confirmed that many of the organisation’s members had voiced concerns about the FEG fee offensive and the approach taken by FEG recovery czar and chief…