Vincents’ Nick Combis. Federal Court judge Brigitte Markovic has dashed the hopes of the receivers of foreign currency exchange Navigate Global Payments (NGP) by siding with a contingent creditor on the question of whether the company should be wound up or returned to administration. Her honour’s rulings – to be found in Shiny (Trustee), in the matter of Navigate Global Payments Pty Ltd (Receivers and…
Exonerated: Liquidator Jason Bettles. Queensland liquidator Jason Bettles might have been naive but he was never complicit. That’s the conclusion of Federal Court judge Brigitte Markovic who in delivering judgment in Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Bettles [2023] FCA 975 has written another chapter in the burgeoning Apocrypha of failed litigation commenced by the corporate regulator. “A review of his evidence and the way…
Deloitte partner Matthew Donnelly. Deloitte partner Sean Holmes. Getting court approval for remuneration and guidance on how to distribute trust monies to unit holders is one thing. Getting the court to approve your application for orders winding up an unregistered managed investment scheme is something else again, as two Deloitte insolvency and restructuring partners recently discovered. “In my view, the plaintiffs do not have standing…
The latest judgment to surface from the stew of litigation between the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT) and those behind gold refiner Pallion Group reveals that a lone liquidator has been adroitly walking the perception-of-conflict tightrope since 2017. “It was not necessary for the Court to form a view that the liquidator is, or will likely be, in a position of conflict. Rather, it was sufficient that an appearance of conflict exists sufficient…
Jones Partners consultant Alan Topp. Coming before certain judges with less than fulsome explanations as to why fees and costs are justified is a zero sum game, as certain parties found out when NSW Supreme court judge Ashley Black was asked to rule on a dispute over amounts to be deducted from the proceeds of sale of land in Sydney’s west. “I do not accept…
Lowe Lippmann partner Gideon Rathner If a full bench of the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that creditors were misled, it’s a fair bet that when the costs of the resultant litigation come to be determined, indemnities will be endangered. In circumstances were that same full bench also found that the architects of the creditors’ nescience were less than forthcoming in submissions to the…
Lowe Lippmann partner Gideon Rathner. It had to take the long road but a persistent creditor has been vindicated in its bid to have a deed of company arrangement (DoCA) terminated after the Federal Court of Appeal last week found that the deed had been executed on the basis of materially misleading information. The impugned information was contained in a Section 530A Report provided to…
Hogan Sprowles partner Michael Hogan. They may have recommended a dog of DoCA and been punted as a consequence but two Sydney practitioners are lucky they don’t have more wounds to lick. On Monday, NSW Supreme Court judge Ashley Black made costs orders in respect of Minle Wine Negociants of Australia Pty Ltd (Minle) after last week terminating a deed of company arrangement (DoCA) and…
PKF partner Simon Thorn. A NSW Supreme Court decision has visited total defeat upon liquidator Simon Thorn almost two years after a Local Court magistrate delivered him victory. In BounceLED Pty Ltd v Clear Skies Corp Pty Ltd (in liq) (No 2) [2023] NSWSC 810 judge Mark Richmond yesterday ruled that not only should Thorn pay BounceLED Pty Ltd’s (BounceLED) costs on the ordinary basis…
Hogan Sprowles partner Michael Hogan. A decision from the NSW Supreme Court this week shines an unforgiving light on the handling of an administration by two Sydney practitioners who’ve been ousted after a creditor applied to have a deed of company arrangement (DoCA) terminated. “… unusually, in my experience, Mr Hogan indicated in evidence that the Administrators would now not seek to recover remuneration beyond…