Pitcher Partners’ Paul Weston is displaying exceptional optimism as he attempts to prosecute an insolvent trading case without the benefit of books and records of Starcom Group Pty Ltd. Weston was appointed liquidator of Starcom in early 2011 but only launched the $5.5 million claim in early 2017. Since then he’s reached settlements with Starcom’s chief financial officer and its company secretary and, emboldened and…
Whilst one must take care not to assume, it looks as though ex-KordaMentha partner Cliff Rocke and KordaMentha’s John Bumbak have doubled down in getting up officialdom’s nose. It started on June 6 when Rocke went to the Federal Court seeking an order to facilitate his retirement as sole liquidator of three companies to which he’d been appointed before his departure from Kordas in December, 2016. Rocke also asked…
Derrick Vicker’s troubled tenure as liquidator of the Ostwald Brothers construction group is set to come to end, with the PwC partner preparing to make way for John Park and Kelly Anne Trenfield of FTI Consulting on the basis – according to Vickers – of a potential conflict destined to emerge once PwC completes its acquisition of PPB Advisory (PPBA) on August 1. For Vickers,…
Sydney liquidator David Young will have his legal advisors furiously redrafting after a judge yesterday ruled he needed to replead allegations of fraud and claims for compensation he’s seeking to pursue against Sydney accountant Aaron Randell, York Street, Sydney accounting firm Emerson, Randell & Young and the directors of Galtari Pty Ltd. INO makes no suggestion of wrongdoing in relation to the allegations, which are contained…
PPB Advisory’s Chris Hill has saved his firm hundreds of thousands of dollars after successfully opposing an order for a subpoena sought by the directors of Force Corp (in liquidation), and thanks to Justice Fabian Gleeson, Insolvency News Online (INO) can report on the matter in detail. In the matter of Force Corp Pty Ltd (Recs and Mgrs Apptd) (in liq) [2018] NSWSC 896 (15 June 2018) we…
It may well come down to differing definitions of what constitutes a partner but however a firm structures itself, almost a third of PPB Advisory (PPBA) partners will no longer enjoy the cache the term confers once their company is formally absorbed into the professional services collectivate of PwC on August 1, 2018. Sources revealed yesterday that while 30 of PPBA’s 33 partners will be moving to PwC,…
The public examination of persons related to the failure of Waltek Industries has again exposed the vulnerabilities inherent in the referral relationship, vulnerabilities which if ignored can rebound. Louttit & Associates’ Jamieson Louttit has been conducting examinations into the curious circumstances of Waltek’s near simultaneous incorporation and failure in June 2015, assisted with funding from the Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) recovery division. His predecessors on…
A resolution put to a meeting of creditors by an owners corporation seeking the removal of Henry McKenna as liquidator of Iris Diversified Property Pty Ltd has been confirmed by the NSW Supreme Court this week. On Tuesday, June 6, 218 Justice Ashley Black ordered that the soon-to-be ex-Jirsch Sutherland partner be replaced by O’Brien Palmer’s Chris Palmer and Liam Bailey and that the incoming appointees’ costs by…
Insolvent trading actions might be rare but they can have a galvanising effect on directors, as evidenced by the findings of his honour Judge Matthew Dicker of the NSW District Court in the matter of Inner West Demolition (NSW) Pty Limited v Silk [2018] NSWDC 136. In this instance Inner West Demolition initiated proceedings seeking to prise $327,332.50 under s 588M of the Corporations Act…
Having identified more than $60 million in potential recoveries, it’s no surprise that the liquidators of Australian Institute of Professional Education Pty Ltd (AIPE) are battling on various fronts in both attack and defensive modes. Ferrier Hodgson’s (FH) Morgan Kelly, George Georges and Ryan Eagle were appointed by way of a voluntary winding up under section 491 0f the Corporations Act on 6 October 2016. Since then…