Liquidator Michael Caspaney may soon head to court to have a funding agreement with FEG ratified after creditors of Queensland construction firm Cullen Group Australia rejected the deal on the basis it would bankroll pursuit of sub-contractors who had received more than $4 million in preference payments. Readers of Insolvency News Online may recall that Caspaney was installed at the first meeting of creditors back…
The Commonwealth’s FEG Recovery Unit has won an important skirmish in its dispute with One Corporate Trust Services (OCTS), the appointors of McGrathNicol as receivers of Australian Road Express Pty Ltd (ARX) and Jolly’s Transport Services Pty Ltd. On Monday, the Federal Court published the September 17, 2018 decision of Justice Mark Moshinsky dismissing OCTS’ application to have FEG’s cross-claim in this complex game of PPSR fanagling struck out. The…
Trading on a business under a license agreement would seem to be a perfectly normal proposition for insolvency practitioners extracting the last vestiges of value from a failing company but the agreement entered into by Veritas Advisory’s David Iannuzzi and Steve Naidenov as administrators of the MK Floors Group could not be described as normal. For a start, the licensee was a company called Chiswick which is…
After all the defiance and all the warnings McGrathNicol and the FEG Recovery Unit have turned demure as mice and settled their differences in a confidential arrangement that allows for no comment. Such was the outcome this week in the Federal Court when Justice Brigitte Markovic made orders by consent in Commonwealth of Australia represented by the Department of Employment V Peter McKenzie Anderson & Ors….
It was an awkward few hours in the witness box for liquidator David Iannuzzi on Wednesday, with the the Veritas Advisory principal at one point providing a description of a company director who only hours earlier sat in the same chair insisting the pair had never met. Iannuzzi was in court as part of public examinations being run by the Commonwealth’s FEG Recovery Unit, which is investigating the circumstances around…
INO’s culinary attache recently made note of Veritas Advisory’s David Iannuzzi and Steve Naidenov enjoying the splendid fare at high end Chinese restaurant Spice Temple, observing that the pair, who are currently being examined by the FEG Recovery Unit in regard to their handling of the MK Floors liquidation, were reportedly relaxed and enjoying their lunch with unidentified guests. The report from our source neatly corresponded with a letter…
COMMENT: In Pitcher’s Phoenix Probe Yields Liquidators’ Names we revealed how as part of their investigations into the alleged A&S Services tax avoidance scheme, Pitcher Partners had contacted 100 registered liquidators Australia wide who had accepted referrals from A&S or associated entities, “querying if those liquidators had identified the appointment of dummy directors and/or phoenix transactions”. According to Pitcher’s Lindsay Bainbridge, overwhelmingly the various liquidators did identify…
One of the welcome consequences of the Federal Government’s December 2016 decision to expand FEG’s recovery activities has been an increased focus on insolvency industry advisors, particularly those whose success at pulling a client out of a hole is not commensurate with their success in pocketing fat fees, irrespective of outcomes. In MK Liquidator Floored By Phoenix Allegation INO revealed how colourful insolvency advisors Al Constantinidis and Socrates “Scott” Kitas…
It was just before the May 21, 2018 annual meeting of creditors of failed builder SX Projects that incumbent liquidator Geoff Reidy was approached by several individuals wanting a quiet word. Intrigued, Reidy agreed to the impromptu chat with the men, who one of INO’s sources described as being of South Pacific islander appearance. Once away from prying ears and eyes however, it became clear that they weren’t…
BDO partner James White is packing up and heading back to the UK, though our sources assure us a new baby is the reason White wants to be closer to home and his departure from these fair antipodean shores has nothing to do with the Mossgreen fiasco. We’ve yet to hear back from the man himself but yesterday BDO colleague and joint Mossgreen liquidator Andrew…