A resolution put to a meeting of creditors by an owners corporation seeking the removal of Henry McKenna as liquidator of Iris Diversified Property Pty Ltd has been confirmed by the NSW Supreme Court this week. On Tuesday, June 6, 218 Justice Ashley Black ordered that the soon-to-be ex-Jirsch Sutherland partner be replaced by O’Brien Palmer’s Chris Palmer and Liam Bailey and that the incoming appointees’ costs by…
Availability of and access to litigation funders is one of the biggest challenges for liquidators and while funder numbers have swelled in recent years it doesn’t mean the dollars are easier to find. Liquidator Michael Hird has spent considerable time trying to attract a backer willing to underwrite examinations of some of the directors of the failed Allmine Group, a search outlined in convenient detail…
While the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry has yet to identify insolvency practitioners (IP) it wants hauled in for questioning, it’s likely some will be checking their professional indemnity policies to ensure they’re up to date. At the moment the Commission is looking at the excesses indulged in by the banks’ lending divisions. Soon that focus will switch…
Some of the profession’s most pressing questions will be explored and potential solutions debated at the inaugural Association of Independent Insolvency Practitioners (AIIP) Conference to be held next month in Canberra. Questions around safe harbour; pre-packs; litigation funding, law reform and what the future might have in store will all be canvassed at the Disruption in the Insolvency Industry Conference on June 28 and 29…
If Prince Harry and his fiance must endure old man Markle crashing their wedding then why should the highest profile pairing in Australia’s insolvency sector be exempt from intervention? The answer is that it even if it should be it isn’t, as evidenced by the confetti of subpoenas and affidavits filed in the Supreme Court of Queensland this week by lawyers representing one Clive Frederick…
The Federal Court’s Justice Steven Rares has utilised a receiver’s claim for remuneration to opine less than favourably about the “above normal returns” attracting increasing numbers of hopefuls into the colosseum that is Australia’s litigation funding space. In Australian Executor Trustee Ltd v Provident Capital Ltd [2018] FCA 439 Justice Rares quoted University of New South Wales Professor of Law Michael Legg, who in a recent article determined that…
Sibling liquidators Sule Arnautovic and Amanda Young were having a little trouble yesterday trying to persuade Federal Court Judge Kathleen Farrell to approve a funding deed that will govern $450,000 the Jirsch Sutherland pair are to deploy investigating an alleged phoenix transaction. The funding has been put up by GDK Projects, which on January 21, 2015 won judgment against Umberto Pty Ltd, the former operator of Candelori’s…
You win some you lose some it seems with Jirsch Sutherland’s sibling practitioners Sule Arnautovic and Amanda Young scooping up a gig as special purpose liquidators (SPLs) of Umberto Pty Ltd, the former owner of Candelori’s Restaurant, after SV Partners’ Shumit Banerjee and Jason Porter apparently found aspects of the proposed funding agreement not to their taste. The four practitioner’s names came up in proceedings in the Federal Court…
Veritas Advisory might find itself in need of a replacement trustee now that the first AFSA disciplinary committee convened under the new Insolvency Practice rules prepares to determine whether incumbent Louise Thomson should incur any penalty. According to the AFSA website, Thomson was referred under Part 2 of Schedule 2 to the Bankruptcy Act (the Act) after the Inspector-General formed the belief that: “Thomson has failed…
Our coverage in Robinson’s Reed Blitz Could Attract FEG Attention prompted PPB Advisory partner Mark Robinson to counter with information he believes extinguishes any suggestion that the Commonwealth via the FEG Recovery Unit might be entitled to consider it has a priority claim on funds recovered so far. Robinson pointed out that when Reed’s directors placed the company into voluntary administration (VA) back in June 2012, Ferrier…