The dispute around control of Rushcutters Bay eatery Bar M – formerly known as Bar Machiavelli Pty Ltd – has Hurst Recovery’s David Hurst in court urgently seeking to unwind transactions that could ultimately see him liable to pay a costs order for at least $60k and other as yet unallocated costs. At the same time, those who referred him the job – restaurateur Paola Toppi and…
In all the excitement surrounding the Kilarnee and Amerind cases, similar questions about rights of indemnity and exoneration as they apply to trustees have been somewhat overlooked in the bankruptcy context, but the issues have been ventilated, most recently in Lane (Trustee), in the matter of Lee (Bankrupt) v Commissioner of Taxation (No 3) [2018] FCA 1572 (19 October 2018). This one involves a preference paid…
There’s an intriguing little backstory to last week’s headline event that saw a judge deny Worrells partner Graeme Beattie the role of liquidator of Bux Global Pty Ltd. Beattie accepted the appointment on October 4 following a referral in September from Jirsch Sutherland partner Daniel Civil. What he didn’t know was that on the same day in the Federal Court in Perth, orders were made appointing Ferrier Hodgson’s…
John Sheahan and Ian Locke have obtained the imprimatur of the Federal Court for a deal which will see significant sums paid to the Australian Tax Office (ATO). The deal represents a partial settlement of the long running BCI Finances dispute, but in his judgment of September 28, 2018 Justice Richard White was at pains to remind the South-Australian-based practitioners that if this deal goes sour it’s…
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…
It would have been quite a sight seeing ASIC investigators involved in the regulator’s achingly drawn out pursuit of Peter Macks cross-examined by the South Australian-based liquidator but it is not to be, with Justice Sam Doyle of the Supreme Court of South Australia declining to countenance such entertainments. In Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Macks [2018] SASC 132 the judge revealed how he had refused…
Western Sydney accountant and insolvency referrer Gerardo “Gerry” Incollingo has denied allegations made by the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT) that he backdated documents to help controversial property developer Charbel Demian avoid a $35 million tax and penalties bill. In Deputy Commissioner of Taxation v Advanced Holdings Pty Ltd & Ors Federal Court Judge Anna Katzmann lays out how on August 21, 2018 she made orders freezing assets controlled by Demian’s Advanced Holdings…
It’s not exactly Linc Energy but asset contamination can still poison the insolvency process even when it occurs on a vastly smaller scale – just ask Glenn Crisp and Malcolm Howell. The Jirsch Sutherland pair are liquidators of Bonnie View Petroleum Pty Ltd, which in 2010 arranged to sell its 19 petrol stations to larger rival, United Petroleum Pty Ltd. Of the 19 servos Bonnie View…
What a liquidator and ASIC jointly affirm in an enforceable undertaking (EU), a tax agent can seemingly refute in a few hours of public examination. Such was what INO witnessed last Friday in the Federal Court as accountant and registered tax agent Frank Bruzzano denied ever having provided advice on the solvency or otherwise of any company or client, including Lidcombe Plastering Services Pty Ltd (LPS), its…
PKF Victoria’s Jason Stone and Glenn Franklin are playing hardball with AG Coombs Pty Ltd after the national mechanical services designer and installer failed to respond in time to statutory demands the PKF pair issued as liquidators of sub-contractor M & V Consultants Pty Ltd. Petrified at what that could mean for a business with 650 employees and annual turnover of $250 million AG Coombs sought an…