Katherine Barnet leaving the Supreme Court Photo: iNO Images Liquidator Kate Barnet has taken leave of absence from her role as a director of the board of the Australian Restructuring, Insolvency & Turnaround Association (ARITA) following her referral to a s40-45 disciplinary committee by ASIC. As was first reported last week in Insolvency News Online (iNO) Barnet and former Bentleys colleague Bill Fletcher were referred…
The AFP arrests this week in respect of yet another Plutus Payroll-style tax evasion scheme prompted iNO to consider, not for the first time, what aspects if any of these recurring scams are facilitated by complicit insolvency practitioners, a negligent regulator or a combination of both. Looking at the names of those arrested, it wasn’t long before our investigations led us instead to a particular…
Octaviar liquidator Kate Barnet. Octaviar liquidator Bill Fletcher. Octaviar liquidators Kate Barnett and Bill Fletcher have been referred to a disciplinary committee under section two of the Insolvency Practice Schedule by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Following the issuing of a show cause notice, the corporate regulator published notice of the referral to a schedule two committee last week. Barnett declined to comment…
KPMG’s Peter Gothard. KPMG’s Robyn Duggan. The shareholders of the Pages events group may have been throttling each other through the courts for four strangulated years but as far as iNO is concerned things became interesting only this month. In less than three weeks an entity in the group has had administrators appointed, administrators replaced and if the Gods of case law so will it,…
Hamilton Murphy’s Stephen Dixon. Worrells’ Ivan Glavas. The likelihood that Hamilton Murphy’s Steve Dixon and Worrells’ Ivan Glavas could come in for some unwelcome attention has edged a little closer to reality following the latest decision of Justice Kevin Lyons of the Supreme Court of Victoria in the unfolding saga that is El-Saafin & Anor v Franek & Ors (No 4) [2020] VSC 389. Dixon…
AICM CEO Nick Pilavidis. Sources close to Government deliberations around how to cope with the tsunami of insolvencies anticipated once fiscal support ends have told iNO measures to restrain liquidators from pursuing preferences are under active consideration. “A lot of stakeholders are seeking to have unfair preferences suspended, the AICM for example,” a source said in response to iNO’s enquiries about options the government could…
Balance Insolvency principal Tim Cook. Criticisms of a 439A report produced by Balance Insolvency’s Tim Cook have been revealed in a judgment delivered this morning by Justice Ashley Black in the NSW Supreme Court. Cook’s report was issued on April 9, 2019 following his appointment as voluntary administrator (VA) of Citadel Financial Corporation. Citadel sought Cook’s consent to act after it lost a case in…
SV Partners’ Darren Vardy. SV Partners director Darren Vardy is neck deep in a stoush with Chubb Insurance Australia Limited over the question of whether a man who was sole director, sole shareholder and lone company secretary of All Class Insurance Brokers was an employee. If he wasn’t that means the more than $2 million sole director Leroy Bowmaker took from All Class’s trust account…
Tony McGrath. McGrathNicol Partner Kathy Sozou. “You only get one HIH in a lifetime of liquidations” insolvency veteran Tony McGrath might by moved to say as he finalises one of, if not the last of his formal insolvency appointments in pursuit of life as consultant, expert witness and independent company director. The imagined comment – fashioned from the late Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer’s famous quip…
Pitcher Partners’ Andrew Yeo. Pitcher Partners’ Gess Rambaldi. They may not be overly bothered but Pitcher Partners’s Andrew Yeo and Gess Rambaldi have had to relinquish a case involving accused phoenix mastermind Phil Whiteman and his de facto wives. The pair have been pursuing recovery of the proceeds of sale of residential properties located in Balaclava, Elwood and Port Melbourne, Victoria. As the liquidators of…