Federal Circuit and Family Court judge Sophie Given. AIIP President Shabnam Amirbeaggi. Insolvency practitioner and AIIP president Shabnam Amirbeaggi would have been relieved last week that it wasn’t her lawyers who recently attracted the ire of Federal Circuit judge Sophie Given. As trustee in bankruptcy of one Maureen Billiau, Amirbeaggi has been frustrated in her efforts to realise estate property and so she went to…
DW Advisory’s Paul Weston. It perhaps comes as no surprise that a man who’s defrauded our electoral processes, assaulted his missus, thumped a journalist, forged documents, and been banned, bankrupted and gaoled, might also find reasons to be aggrieved with his trustee. Nor does it surprise iNO that a court, having considered the numerous grounds advanced to justify an inquiry into the trustee’s conduct, might…
Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. Etienne Lawyers Steven Brown. A judge of the NSW Supreme Court yesterday delivered the coup de grace to long standing allegations of dishonesty and breaches of duty by a lawyers and a liquidator, thus bringing to an end a saga that’s hung over the heads of certain Hall Chadwick Sydney members past and present since 2006. “Mr Salmon is plainly aggrieved…
WA Insolvency Solutions’ Greg Prout. WA Insolvency Solutions’ Jimmy Trpcevski. The moral of this particular tale is that if you want a judge to approve your application to significantly extend the convening period, don’t starve them of detail. “It must be understood that requests for extensions of the convening period under s 439A are not simply available for the asking.” Supreme Court of West Australia…
PKF partner Simon Thorn. A certain insolvency practitioner may attract some unwanted attention after ignoring forgery claims that a court has now upheld. In the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, Justice Kate Williams dismissed the practitioner’s application for orders validating his appointment as administrator of Premier Energy Resources Pty Ltd (PER), primarily on the basis that to do so her honour said would “give the imprimatur…
HLB Mann Judd partner Greg Quinn. West Australian liquidator Greg Quinn has secured the result he wanted following a court application to resolve a clear conflict. The HLB Mann Judd partner is the liquidator of Flexi Staff Pty Ltd (Flexi Staff), as well as the liquidator of its related entity, Texpoint Pty Ltd (Texpoint). “A liquidator has a conflict of duties in exercising any power…
Philip Damien Whiteman. Photo courtesy ABC News. Opinion The authorities responsible for overseeing the conduct of corporations frequently remind the public of the cost of illegal phoenixing. Billions lost every year. Responsibly run businesses damaged through innocent association with unscrupulous recidivists. The undermining of public confidence in free and fair markets. “In 2016, evidence was obtained by the Australian Taxation Office “during an access without…
Grant Thornton’s John McInerney. Grant Thornton’s Phil Campbell-Wilson. It all started when lawyer Thomas Russell sent an email on July 2, 2019 to then Jirsch Sutherland partner Sule Arnautovic. Russell wanted to set up a time to discuss a potential VA appointment. He told Arnautovic he acted for Florian Heymans, the sole director of two companies operating under the Robust Construction Services Pty Ltd banner….
Oracle Advisory founder Nick Cooper. No trustee likes to have their hand forced but when the consequences of a coerced injunction application include an adverse costs order well, we bet nobody tells aspiring trustees there’ll be days like these, as the late John Lennon lamented. “I am not satisfied, however, that the Trustee proposes to enter into a contract of sale if an injunction is…
Cor Cordis’s Jeremy Nipps. What’s the world come to when a dispenser of justice prefers the evidence of a recruitment consultant over that of a registered liquidator? End of times is what. Probity. Integrity. Acting at times as officers of the court. Liquidators are rightly held to a high standard. The reputation of recruitment consultants meanwhile has journalists and lawyers hastening to stand by their…