Liquidators

Halifax and the maddening complexity of commingling

KPMG’s Phil Quinlan KPMG’s Morgan Kelly. An application for the issue of a “Letter of Request” to the High Court of New Zealand (NZHC) has been ruled “premature” due to the application being ex-parte, but the liquidators of online broker Halifax Investment Services PtyLtd (Halifax) are almost certain to reapply given the unbridled intermingling of client and company funds across Halifax’s Australian and Kiwi operations….


More liquidators join retiree ranks

Grant Thornton CEO Greg Keith. Grant Thornton’s Paul Billingham. The roll of registered liquidators – currently standing at 653 – is losing a pair of veterans in the form of Grant Thornton’s Greg Keith and Paul Billingham, both of whom are planning to persist in professional life without the benefit or the burden of a license to liquidate. While the pair’s intentions have been no…


Hopefuls queue to replace Hall Chadwick after appeal

Hall Chadwick’s Steve Gladman. There’s nothing like the whiff of an appointment precariously clung to to bring out the competition. The aroma of opportunity, mingled with the reek of WIP slipping from a rival’s grasp – it’s catnip to ambitious IPs. In our latest review from the theatre of appointments lost, Hall Chadwick’s Steve Gladman is sniffing the wind and wondering if he’s at risk…


ATO overlooks own audit during CFC DoCA objections

Balance Insolvency principal Tim Cook. An appeal against a judgment that went the way of FTI Consulting’s John Park and Kelly-Anne Trenfield kicked off in the Federal Court yesterday and there’s plenty to ponder as it pertains to Citadel Finance Corporation (CFC) and its labour hire subsidiary Action Scaffolding & Rigging Pty Limited (AS&R). A financier of its own operating entities, CFC is the appellant…


Mega Dyldam development yet to escape liquidation

Deloitte’s David Mansfield. Proceedings to set aside the winding up of a Dyldam group company buckling under onerous obligations and weakening property prices have highlighted the different way judges and liquidators sometimes see solvency. In the matter of Rainbow Carlingford One Pty Limited (in liquidation) (ACN 604 122 054) [2019] NSWSC 971 the financial analysis of Deloitte’s David Mansfield was submitted in favour of an…


Judge chides ABL and MO over BBY emails

BBY liquidator Stephen Vaughan. The brain-contorting complexity of the BBY Limited liquidation is back on display after liquidators Stephen Vaughan and Ian Hall sought to retreat to a simpler regime for the recovery of costs. The simpler regime was first put in place in 2015 by Justice Paul Brereton, who has since fled to the Court of Appeal. At the time the regime was seen…


The wedding guest who could not be appointor

O’Brien Palmer’s Daniel Frisken. O’Brien Palmer’s Daniel Frisken won’t be the last insolvency practitioner to rue the increasingly intrusive remit of the corporate regulator but the circumstances around how he and OBP partner Liam Bailey came to stand aside as appointees on Urban Couture thanks to the dreaded double might test make for an instructive tale. Frisken was approached about a possible voluntary administrator’s (VA)…


SPL seeks funder to tackle NAB over Mawson

Menzies Advisory’s Michael Caspaney Those construction industry insolvencies seem to have particularly restive committees of inspection (COIs) and it may be that the Walton Construction entities in liquidation fall into this category given the judgment handed down last week. In the matter of Williams & Kersten Pty Ltd ACN 141 894 724 & Anor v Walton Construction (QLD) Pty Ltd (In Liquidation) ACN 100 833…


The ASIC investigation that went nowhere … or did it?

John Kukulovski. Andrew Ngo. In the final months of 2015, a most irregular meeting took place between two senior partners of Jirsch Sutherland and a team of ASIC officers. Information obtained by iNO shows that the aim of the November 24, 2015 meeting was to canvass issues relating to a supposed “confession” made by Andrew Ngo, a former Jirsch director who joined Mackay Goodwin in…


Suspect referral came from lawyer with Plutus links

Living in Prague: Clamenz Lawyers’ Daniel Clarke. INO has republished this article because it has been brought to our attention that the previous version contains imputations that Veritas Advisory, and its directors, knowingly accepted an appointment of a company involved in a tax scam.  In fact the Plutus Payroll Australia Pty Ltd appointment was not referred to Veritas Advisory by Mr Clarke or Clamnez Lawyers. …