After four years of near Spartan resistance, Stephen Hathway has unexpectedly extracted a settlement from the family behind the failed, cheap-as-chips girls wear outfit, Tightrope group. On Monday, orders were made by consent between Hathway as liquidator of Tightrope Retail and Tightrope Wholesale and Robyn Tripolitis, wife of bankrupt company founder John Tripolitis. Those consent orders came on the eve of the scheduled commencement of a…
The four FTI Consulting partners managing the liquidation of Queensland Nickel have had a tidy win in the Supreme Court of Queensland after applying to extend an interlocutory application preventing Domenic Martino and China First Pty Ltd from interfering in the various proceedings the liquidators have on foot against interests associated with QNI’s ultimate owner, Clive Palmer. The FTI four are suing Palmer’s Mineralogy for…
The recently asserted primacy of State laws over the insolvency statutes is to be tested in two appeals backed by the bullish litigators running the Department of Employment’s FEG recovery Unit. In the case of failed coal-to-liquids aspirant Linc Energy, liquidators Stephen Longley, Grant Sparks and Martin Ford two weeks ago filed notice of their intent to appeal the judgment of Queensland Supreme Court Justice David J…
Derek Minus may well be a dispute resolution specialist of the highest order but that does not seem to have helped him resolve his dispute with BPS Recovery’s David Sampson. The pair have been at loggerheads over the sale of Minus’s barrister’s chambers in Castlereagh Street since Sampson was given authority to sell the property in his capacity as court-appointed receiver late last year. In…
It was only a matter of time before the scourge of identity theft forced an insolvency practitioner to validate their appointment and Sydney liquidator Steve Kugel has recently been enjoying the inconveniences that flow from discovering an appointor is not who he seems. Kugel was contacted on April 19 by a person identifying themselves as Tony Agius, director of a company called LG Energy Solutions. Over…
It’s been a while coming but with public examinations scheduled for the end of this month it’s no surprise that the colourful figures behind the Dyldam construction group have finally brokered a deal with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) over a multi-million dollar tax debt. 70 cents in the dollar, with $1 million paid up front and the balance to be handed over in seven months….
Why the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT) at last got its way in terms of supplanting liquidator Schon Condon was answered this week with the publication of the reasons of Federal Court Judge Jacqueline Gleeson in the matter of ACN 154 520 199 Pty Ltd (in liq) v ACN 154 520 199 Pty Ltd (in liq) (2017) FCA 444. For the uninitiated, ACN 154 520…
When one is defending an application which seeks to have a court enquire into your conduct, dumping insolvency appointments might signal a lack of faith in one’s defence. Unless perhaps you’re preparing to retire? And as it happens, ArmstrongWily principal Andrew Wily finds himself in just such a predicament. The keen angler and pig shooter is currently defending an action brought by the Australian Securities and Investments…
THE Deputy Commissioner of Taxation’s (DCoT) crusade to install special purpose liquidators (SPLs) to a company it alleges is part of a multi-million dollar scam involving gold bullion and improperly claimed GST credits was fully ventilated yesterday when the protagonists slugged it out during a half day hearing in the Federal Court. ACN 154 520 199 Pty Ltd – formerly known as EBS Pty Ltd – is…
McGrathNicol’s Shaun Fraser and Tony McGrath are edging closer to launching a claim against Meyer Vandenberg, the former solicitors of PrimeSpace Property Investment Limited (PPIL) following confidential examinations conducted in February, but in news to no one, progress is being complicated by a creditor, ratcheting up the pressure on the pair who are funding their investigations with money from PPIL trusts. PPIL is the responsible entity…