O’Brien Palmer’s Chris Palmer. There are times when one is compelled to ask what motivates a liquidator to pursue an 11th hour payment to a creditor when the sought after sum, once costs are deducted, amounts to sixth fifths of bugger all? For iNO such a time came on Tuesday as we read the judgement of Justice Fabian Gleeson In the matter of Skypac Aviation…
DCL Advisory’s Thomas Dawson. A recent decision of the NSW Supreme Court has highlighted why liquidators and their legal advisors need not think an absolute guillotine order precludes them from having a fresh crack, though in winning a motion to amend, liquidator Thomas Dawson has also copped an indemnity costs order for delay. In Dawson as liquidator of J R Line and Safety Services Pty…
KPMG’s Max Donnelly. KPMG’s Robyn Duggan. A judge has suggested liquidators and former partners of Ferrier Hodgson demonstrated one of the last desirable characteristics in those responsible for administering insolvent entities – they were too trusting. In Combined Property Holdings Pty Ltd v Galea & Ors [2020] QSC 338 Justice James Henry of the Supreme Court of Queensland in Cairns recounts how Robyn Duggan and…
Aston Chace’s Vincent Pirina. Aston Chace principal Steve Naidenov. There’s an interesting issue in the recent judgment of NSW Supreme Court Justice Ashley Black, who’s rejected efforts to prevent liquidators from deriving a profit via work done by employees of two incorporated accounting firms with which the liquidators either are or were associated. In the matter of Karim Pty Ltd (in liq) [2020] NSWSC 1603…
Worrells Partner Aaron Lucan. Worrells’ partner Aaron Lucan has been ordered to pay an indemnity costs order personally after indulging a seven month silence in respect of proceedings brought against the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT) by a company to which Lucan is the appointed liquidator. “The effect of ordering the first plaintiff to pay the defendants’ costs would be to visit the consequences of…
O’Brien Palmer’s Daniel Frisken. Never presume to position yourself between the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police and an allegedly ill-gotten dollar. As O’Brien Palmer’s Daniel Frisken has discovered, and as is detailed in the matter of The Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police v Pharmacy Depot Hurstville Pty Ltd (in liq) (No 2) [2020] NSWSC 1571 the outcome is unlikely to prove favourable to…
Macks Advisory’s Peter Macks. South Australian liquidator Peter Macks faked documents in an attempt to foil an ASIC investigation, a court has found. In Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Peter Ivan Macks (No.4) [2020] SASC 209 South Australian Supreme Court judge Sam Doyle said Macks had acted dishonestly and for the purpose of deceiving ASIC in respect of a memoranda Macks provided to the…
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. ASIC has suffered a humiliating setback in its bid to have the liquidator’s registration of Jason Bettles cancelled, with the Federal Court on Wednesday ordering the regulator to reformulate its…
Sydney liquidator Greg Parker has been handed a potential migraine after a judge ordered ASIC to reinstate two companies wound up by Parker and subsequently deregistered in 2016 and 2019. The companies – Worldwide Speciality Property Services Pty Ltd (WSPS) and Serif Pty Ltd (Serif) – between them controlled a suite of patents lodged in the US. Those patents have since expired and the companies’…
FTI Consulting’s John Park. LMIML receiver David Whyte. If recently retired BDO partner David Whyte ever thought the finalisation of his work as receiver of LM Investment Management Limited (LMIML) would be uneventful, then FTI Consulting’s John Park has well and truly disabused him of that notion. In recent months Park has, as liquidator of LMIML, challenged Whyte’s remuneration claims, with the most recent challenge…