Liquidators

Receivers gunning for Griffin Coal liquidators

Deloitte partner Sean Holmes. Cor Cordis partner Tom Birch. While it might appear that today’s edition comprises a “Focus on the West” and a spotlight on Deloitte partner Sean Holmes, we can assure iNO readers that it’s a coincidence. Unlike our other yarn involving Holmes’s efforts to wind up a Ponzi scheme based on algorithmic trading of foreign exchange, this old economy tale deals with…


Court refuses liquidators standing to bury Ponzi

Deloitte partner Matthew Donnelly. Deloitte partner Sean Holmes. Getting court approval for remuneration and guidance on how to distribute trust monies to unit holders is one thing. Getting the court to approve your application for orders winding up an unregistered managed investment scheme is something else again, as two Deloitte insolvency and restructuring partners recently discovered. “In my view, the plaintiffs do not have standing…


SPLs justified by conflict perception: judge

The latest judgment to surface from the stew of litigation between the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT) and those behind gold refiner Pallion Group reveals that a lone liquidator has been adroitly walking the perception-of-conflict tightrope since 2017. “It was not necessary for the Court to form a view that the liquidator is, or will likely be, in a position of conflict. Rather, it was sufficient that an appearance of conflict exists sufficient…


Liquidator’s explanations on fees and costs fall short

Jones Partners consultant Alan Topp. Coming before certain judges with less than fulsome explanations as to why fees and costs are justified is a zero sum game, as certain parties found out when NSW Supreme court judge Ashley Black was asked to rule on a dispute over amounts to be deducted from the proceeds of sale of land in Sydney’s west. “I do not accept…


Liquidator among eight summonsed for examination

O’Brien Palmer’s Liam Bailey. Hogan Sprowles Michael Hogan. A certain Sydney insolvency practitioner must be rueing the day he agreed to introduce Scott Keith McCorkell to a business valuer. Or is the day the liquidator’s referrer introduced him to the Mosman ad man the penultimate moment of regret? ” … while the BSA “appears to be “supported” by the Valuation …. there are a number…


SPLs appointed as ATO renews assault on refiner

KordaMentha partner Rahul Goyal. KordaMentha partner Jenny Nettleton. The Deputy Commissioner of Taxation’s (DCoT’s) dogged interest in the moving minds behind Marrickville gold refiner Pallion Group took another turn this week with the Federal Court making orders appointing special purpose liquidators (SPLs) to ACN 607 537 548 Pty Ltd (ABCRA1). The intervention means KordaMentha partners Rahul Goyal and Jennifer Nettleton will now undertake investigatory matters…


Hall Chadwick partners’ fee fights on two fronts

McGrathNicol’s Rob Brauer. Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. Insolvency practitioners at Hall Chadwick are enmeshed in at least two fee fights at present and the common denominator in both is Sydney practice head Richard Albarran. iNO readers will be familiar with the travails being experienced by Albarran and outgoing Melbourne partner Richard Lawrence in respect of work they did on Tauro Capital (Tauro), an appointment they…


Unhelpful administrators cop costs penalty

Hogan Sprowles partner Michael Hogan. They may have recommended a dog of DoCA and been punted as a consequence but two Sydney practitioners are lucky they don’t have more wounds to lick. On Monday, NSW Supreme Court judge Ashley Black made costs orders in respect of Minle Wine Negociants of Australia Pty Ltd (Minle) after last week terminating a deed of company arrangement (DoCA) and…


Liquidator’s bid to tap Suitors Fund refused

PKF partner Simon Thorn. A NSW Supreme Court decision has visited total defeat upon liquidator Simon Thorn almost two years after a Local Court magistrate delivered him victory. In BounceLED Pty Ltd v Clear Skies Corp Pty Ltd (in liq) (No 2) [2023] NSWSC 810 judge Mark Richmond yesterday ruled that not only should Thorn pay BounceLED Pty Ltd’s (BounceLED) costs on the ordinary basis…


Committee rules liquidator’s registration be cancelled

Richard Auricht South Australian liquidator Richard Auricht could be off to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) after a Schedule 2 disciplinary committee ruled that his registration be cancelled. In accordance with the committee’s ruling ASIC published the decision with reasons yesterday. See: https://download.asic.gov.au/media/gacn0ghu/20230626-richard-auricht-report-final.pdf “It is not the basis upon which the fees were incurred, or the entitlement to being paid that ASIC believes makes Mr…