Steve Kugel of The Insolvency Experts.Liquidator and Trustee Anthony Warner.How optimistic iNO was when we published “Bitter Partnership Dispute Edges Closer to End Game” under the assumption that resolution was nigh. Now, with the benefit of six years of hindsight, iNO would no longer bet that this week’s decision of the NSW Supreme Court of Appeal represents the last hurrah for liquidator and trustee Anthony…
WA Insolvency Solutions’ Greg Prout. A key feature of the Small Business Restructuring (SBR) reforms introduced in 2020 can be a trap for the unwary appointee.While the Restructuring Practitioner might be appointed he or she acts in the capacity of agent for the company.“As to the costs of the application, SCS asked the Court to make no order as to costs. This position was confirmed by counsel…
Louttit & Associates’ Jamieson LouttitA Sydney insolvency practitioner has been ousted as liquidator of Coal Contractors Pty Limited after the Federal Court decided creditors would benefit from a fresh set of eyes, particular eyes that charged less than the other sets of eyes vying for the gig.The replacement application was brought last month by Starbelle Energy Pty Ltd (Starbelle).“Starbelle submits, and I accept, that it…
Newbie Rachel Burnett of Cor Cordis.ASIC last week announced the members of its Reviewing Liquidator (RevLiq) Panel for the 2024/2025. In 12 months not much has changed.One extra member has been added to the latest panel, which comprised 14 members in 2023/2024.The current panel also boasts an extra panellist from what would be considered one of the larger firmsThis might be considered a coup for…
Rodgers Reidy director Brodie Hilet.Rodgers Reidy director Neil McLean.Federal Court judge Michael O’Bryan issued a judgment this week that outlines with admirable succinctness the fundamental purpose of appointing provisional liquidators (ProvLiqs), the circumstances required to justify such appointments and the reasons why any such appointment cannot by ordered in the absence of limitations.His honour was confronted with the far from unusual scenario in which shareholders…
Struck off ex liquidator David Iannuzzi.Evading an order for indemnity costs aside, iNO can’t help wondering if the Commissioner of Taxation (CoT) regrets entering into consent orders with struck off liquidator David Iannuzzi way back in 2019.Sure the CoT avoided the need to go through with the court-ordered inquiry it initially sought into Iannuzzi’s conduct as a registered liquidator, but given what’s transpired since maybe…
Chifley Advisory’s Gavin Moss.dVT Group partner Henry Kwok.Resource shortfalls can produce plenty of pain for small insolvency practice operators, as evidenced by the difficulties encountered recently by Chifley Advisory principal Gavin Moss.“Mr Moss believes Mr Kwok has access to additional resources in his new firm, especially forensic accountants in dVT Group’s forensic division, to assist with the litigation and investigation regarding voidable transactions which will…
BCR Advisory’s John Morgan.The undeniable success of FEG Recoveries in clawing back funds for the Commonwealth has certainly emboldened its decision makers, housed within the Federal Government’s Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR).It would therefore be a brave insolvency practitioner who’d bet that the recent setback to FEG’s ambitions as meted out by the High Court of Australia will knock them off balance for…
Jones Partners principal Bruce Gleeson. Jones Partners Daniel Soire.Creditors of controversial and assetless ex-formworker Dalma Form Specialist Pty Ltd (DFS) breathe easy, unless you’re a related party creditor who opposed the application to terminate the DFS DoCA, the creditor who made the application or the creditor who supported it. One way or another you lot just got stung.Such was the outcome when the parties in…
HLB Mann Judd partner Greg Quinn.HLB Mann Judd WA principal Kim Wallman. Is the COVID era’s great redundancy beginning to manifest in a rising administrative error rate as practices struggle to rebuild staff competency depleted during the pandemic?In less than a week iNO has come across two examples of mistakes by staff in insolvency practices that have ended up in court, and while two blunders…