Liquidators

Mother of all partnership disputes ain’t over yet

Insolvency Experts’ principal Steve Kugel. CRS Warner principal Anthony Warner It started in 2015 and maybe it’ll conclude this year. But given the potential for disagreement generated over almost 10 years of litigation, who the hell knows. Since November 2018 when the principle issues were thought to be resolved in the plaintiff’s favour in Shazbot Pty Ltd v Warner Capital Pty Ltd [2018] NSWSC 1645…


Tax boss and banned RL on same side in costs dispute

Ex-liquidator David Iannuzzi. Chris Jordan probably never imagined he’d be lumped in with disgraced ex-liquidator David Iannuzzi on the same side of a legal dispute. It was the current Commissioner of Taxation (CoT) after all who was at the helm of the ATO when the proceedings the tax office commenced in 2017 culminated with Iannuzzi consenting to Federal Court orders striking his name from the…


Disciplinary committee decision appealed

Aston Chase co-founder Steve Naidenov. The supposedly independent committee that convene after ASIC – whose delegate always chairs – has decided that a show cause notice has been inadequately responded to have in recent times recorded only a modest strike rate. Days before Christmas the Committee released its decision in relation to RegLiq and Aston Chace co-founder Steve Naidenov. Regular readers of iNO will know…


Ex-Liquidator to be sentenced for $2.5 million theft

Former liquidator Peter Andrew Amos (R) with his lawyer Clayton Davis outside the Downing Centre District Courts last week. Peter Andrew Amos will have to wait six months before learning if pinching almost $2.5 million is sufficient to see an ex-liquidator gaoled. Amos, who last December pleaded guilty to six counts of dishonestly using his position as an officer of a company to gain an…


Dissatisfied directors try again with Hall Chadwick

Aston Chace’s Ian Niccol. Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. When directors don’t get their preferred external administrator, the unwanted incumbent can anticipate consequences. When that company has a toe on a supposedly rich gold deposit then the unwanted appointee can expect those consequences to manifest swiftly, as Sydney insolvency practitioner Ian Niccol recently discovered. The Aston Chase principal was installed by the courts as liquidator of…


FEG fought the law and the law won

PKF’s Brad Tonks. There must have been much gleeful rubbing of hands yesterday after the NSW Supreme Court of Appeal exorcised the FEG demon in respect of whether a priority creditor’s claim to circulating assets ranks ahead of a liquidator’s claim for remuneration. “The central question before the primary judge and on appeal was whether s 561 of the Act applies and, if so, whether…


Settlement duel between ASIC and liquidator revealed

Liquidator Jason Bettles. Worrells principal Jason Bettles offered to agree to a suspension of his liquidator’s registration as part of a counter offer made more than 12 months before his four year legal battle with ASIC ended in August when the regulator’s case was dismissed and it was ordered to pay Bettles’ costs. As part of those costs orders, Federal Court judge Brigitte Markovic granted…


i-Prosperity giving Cor Cordis plenty to chew on

Cor Cordis partner Jeremy Nipps. Cor Cordis partner Barry Wight. The old adage about biting off more than you can chew and chewing like hell came to mind this week as iNO digested the judgment of Justice Catherine Button in Nipps, in the matter of i-Prosperity Pty Ltd (in liq) [2023] FCA 1446. Her honour was ruling on an application brought by Cor Cordis partners…


More 11th hour VAs crushed by courts

BDO partner Matthew Blum. BDO partner Luke Andrews. Practitioners accepting gigs as voluntary administrators (VAs) after winding up proceedings have been commenced continue to be cannon fodder for Australia’s largest creditor. Recently we reported on a VA’s challenge to the hearing of an application to wind up of Rio Dorado Limited via an application for an adjournment. The argument was that creditors should have the…


Where the onus on arrest warrants lies

Cor Cordis partner Jeremy Nipps. While the words “discharge” and “onus” should never appear in a sentence aspiring to politeness, in obtaining arrest warrants for two men linked to failed iron ore play Ochre Group Holdings (OGH), Cor Cordis West Australia partner Jeremy Nipps has extracted a useful judgment in respect of where onus lies in negating reasonable cause, and how that onus is discharged….