Judgment

Tax boss and banned RL on same side in costs dispute

Ex-liquidator David Iannuzzi. Chris Jordan probably never imagined he’d be lumped in with disgraced ex-liquidator David Iannuzzi on the same side of a legal dispute. It was the current Commissioner of Taxation (CoT) after all who was at the helm of the ATO when the proceedings the tax office commenced in 2017 culminated with Iannuzzi consenting to Federal Court orders striking his name from the…


Liquidator invites adverse findings scrutiny

This may be the cautionary tale to top them all. Levi Consulting’s David Levi. A registered liquidator, making submissions in respect of costs, has – unwittingly we presume – required a judge of the NSW Supreme Court to consider making adverse findings against him. The mother of all own goals, scored on the eve of the new year, though we won’t know till after 4:00pm…


Worrells ‘Workbench’ evaded KPMG scrutiny

Worrells Chris Cook. You might think a sizeable share of $20 million, generated by receivers winding down a poisoned partnership, would be enough to satisfy the most exacting beneficiary. No. In the following case, Worrells Chris Cook and Raj Khatri not only had to respond to repeated inquiries from one of the members of the tainted alliance but had to neuter criticisms from a rival…


Judge slashes liquidator’s fees over delay

SV Partners’ Jason Porter. It doesn’t matter if you have 25 years in the insolvency game and sit on the national board of ARITA. If a judge thinks you’ve delayed a winding up inappropriately and failed to show why fees claimed were reasonably incurred then you’re going to get clipped. This at least seems to be the message from NSW Supreme Court judge Kate Williams…


FEG fought the law and the law won

PKF’s Brad Tonks. There must have been much gleeful rubbing of hands yesterday after the NSW Supreme Court of Appeal exorcised the FEG demon in respect of whether a priority creditor’s claim to circulating assets ranks ahead of a liquidator’s claim for remuneration. “The central question before the primary judge and on appeal was whether s 561 of the Act applies and, if so, whether…


Court dismisses deed administrators’ amendathon

Mackay Goodwin’s director of insolvency operations Mitchell Ball. Domenic Calabretta. Amended originating processes, further amended originating processes, deeds of company arrangements and variants thereof – in the end perhaps it was all too much? “The orders in large part seek to bootstrap the obligations in the Amended DOCA by embodying those obligations in Court orders or otherwise to make specific orders in respect of matters…


Settlement duel between ASIC and liquidator revealed

Liquidator Jason Bettles. Worrells principal Jason Bettles offered to agree to a suspension of his liquidator’s registration as part of a counter offer made more than 12 months before his four year legal battle with ASIC ended in August when the regulator’s case was dismissed and it was ordered to pay Bettles’ costs. As part of those costs orders, Federal Court judge Brigitte Markovic granted…


i-Prosperity giving Cor Cordis plenty to chew on

Cor Cordis partner Jeremy Nipps. Cor Cordis partner Barry Wight. The old adage about biting off more than you can chew and chewing like hell came to mind this week as iNO digested the judgment of Justice Catherine Button in Nipps, in the matter of i-Prosperity Pty Ltd (in liq) [2023] FCA 1446. Her honour was ruling on an application brought by Cor Cordis partners…


Where the onus on arrest warrants lies

Cor Cordis partner Jeremy Nipps. While the words “discharge” and “onus” should never appear in a sentence aspiring to politeness, in obtaining arrest warrants for two men linked to failed iron ore play Ochre Group Holdings (OGH), Cor Cordis West Australia partner Jeremy Nipps has extracted a useful judgment in respect of where onus lies in negating reasonable cause, and how that onus is discharged….


DoCA focus meant liquidation option ignored

David Levi. If you’re appointed administrator of a company subject to a creditor’s statutory demand and indicate a preparedness to have adjourned the winding up application on foot, it makes sense to turn up with your boxes ticked. Last Friday a court dealt with a practitioner who didn’t. “At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious if I assume I’m gong to win the lottery…