Worrells’ Adelaide partner Nick Cooper has moved to wind up a company targeted by the multi-agency Phoenix Taskforce in a series of raids last year. On February 8 in the Federal Court of South Australia orders were made appointing Pitcher Partners Andrew Yeo and Gess Rambaldi liquidators of Armstrong and Shaw Pty Ltd, one of a group of companies connected to controversial pre-insolvency advisor Philip…
One person “quaking” Clive Palmer could not possibly be living in fear of at the moment is the honourable Kenneth J Martin, the West Australian Supreme Court justice whose judgments have in recent months put Palmer’s listed resources vehicle Mineralogy on the cusp of a potentially sizeable windfall. Thanks to the judge, Palmer is one step away away from an interim payment of US$10,690,270.50 (AU$13,917.00) with the…
On December 19 last year the industrious litigators heading the Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) Recovery Program got the two things they must’ve wanted most. A Commonwealth decree declaring their pilot program permanent, and more funding. At around the same time, a number of liquidators received correspondence from the FEG Recovery team. Apparently the letters – authored SiN understands by Arnold Bloch Leibler – requested that…
Subversive utterances were overheard in the corridors of law yesterday, after ASIC’s application for an inquiring into the conduct of liquidators Andrew Wily and David Hurst ran into resistance at the first directions. The moment he was able, Wily’s barrister Farid Assif leapt to his feet and attacked the form and process of ASIC’s application, demanding it be simplified and insisting that no order could…
For an insolvency practitioner, suing a big four bank cannot be an easy decision. The repercussions are obvious and zealously applied. Appointments cease. Word gets around. Other banks wonder. Does this IP appreciate the largesse we bestow? For BRI Ferrier Adelaide principal Andre Strazdins, it’s a question of choice, or more particularly, its absence. Sure the potentially adverse consequences of his battle to recover fees, costs…
Asden Developments liquidator David Clout has been ordered to fork out $80,000 for security for costs ahead of his challenge to a Federal Court decision which rejected his damages claim despite finding that Clout’s predecessor at Asden, Peter Dinoris, had failed in his duties. Federal Court Justice Brigitte Markovic ruled last week that $80,000 was the appropriate amount for Clout to stump up after Dinoris and…
Disgraced former liquidator Mark Darren Levi has been spared gaol time after a judge this morning ordered he serve a sentence of 18 months fully suspended. In June last year, Levi, 43 pleaded guilty to a charge of gaining a benefit by deception. His guilty plea came seven years after he stole $90,000 from a receivership account whilst working in the offices of Jamieson Louttit…
Mark Robinson was typically diplomatic yesterday when asked to discuss the latest ruling on Reed Constructions Australia (RCA), to which the PPB partner was appointed liquidator by the courts on July 9, 2012. Robinson declined, for example, to share his view of the role in the latest skirmish played by HLB Man Judd’s Barry Taylor, preferring instead to express a position of faultless neutrality. “We all…
A certain modestly proportioned law firm might be beginning to feel the queasiness of unwelcome anticipation spiralling into the anxiety of imminent dread as orders handed down by Justice Ashley Black in December are shortly to be brought into effect. It was three days before Christmas when the NSW Supreme Court Justice approved the application of McGrathNicol’s Shaun Fraser and Tony McGrath to utilise funds under their control…
Queensland construction industry creditors have been getting the pineapple – either end is a daunting prospect – since at least 2013 when the still unfolding collapse of Walton Constructions commenced, and if this week’s events in the state of committees is any guide, restive grow the natives. On Tuesday, trade creditors of mid-tier building firm Cullen Group turned out in droves at the first meeting…