Liquidators

Octaviar Liquidators referred to committee

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…


VAs vying for Pages’ contents

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,…


Judgment increases chance of pursuit of VA, receiver

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…


When only a DoCA will do

Cor Cordis’s Jeremy Nipps. It’s not every day liquidators have reason to apply to terminate the winding up orders that saw them installed but just such a scenario is revealed in the matter of C.A.R.E. Employment & Training Services Pty Ltd, in the matter of C.A.R.E. Employment & Training Services Pty Ltd (No 2) [2020] FCA 1006. Cor Cordis duo Jeremy Nipps and Barry Wight…


Struck off liquidator facing criminal charges

Amanda Young. Struck off liquidator Amanda Young could be gaoled for up to 10 years following the commencement of criminal proceedings relating to almost $240,000 the 40 year old accountant is alleged to have misappropriated whilst working at mid-tier insolvency firm Jirsch Sutherland. Young was issued a summons in respect of the alleged criminal offences in April this year and the matter came before a…


Uncertain times for IPs no barrier for some

SV Partners no more! Liquidator Shumit Bannerjee. The current flat lining of insolvency appointments would you think give ambitious IPs eager to strike out on their own cause to reconsider. Not necessarily so. Take SV Partners’ director Shumit Bannerjee for example, or more correctly, former SV Partners’ director. Bannerjee it turns out has taken the bold – or perhaps prescient step – of leaving the…


Preferences next as Govt mulls more COVID moves

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…


Court terminates DoCA but resists 439A critique

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…


UK IPs lap it up as OZ RLs pine for decent drink

Savants Adrian Duncan. The relative difference in rates of insolvency appointments between the UK and Australia has been starkly illustrated in a NSW Supreme Court judgment involving one of the founders of failed share market hopeful Knights Insolvency Administration. UK based chartered accountant Adrian Duncan was one of two vendors who took the doomed Knights insolvency model to investors back when the irrational exuberance of…


IP says director an employee – Chubb disagrees

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…