RSM partner Frank Lo Pilato. It doesn’t necessarily matter if your counsel has identified a new cause of action by which substantial sums might be recovered. If the trial dates are set, the respondents are prejudiced, the judge has a side hustle and you’re held to a higher standard than the average punter then you’ve got buckleys. That at least is how it turned out…
Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. Equititrust Income Fund receiver David Whyte. When you tell creditors that you won’t seek to recover your fees from a related entity and the receiver of that related entity is present, it’s best not to renege. Even the most well-meaning of practitioners can come to regret backflipping on an undertaking and in the case of Equititrust Limited (in Liquidation) (EL) and…
LMFMIF receiver David Whyte. Almost a decade after he was appointed to oversee the winding up of the LM First Mortgage Income Fund (LMFMIF), former BDO partner David Whyte has all but brought this salutary tale of greed and leverage to a conclusion after a court approved the entry by Whyte into a settlement with Ernst & Young. The terms of the settlement – the…
Hall Chadwick’s Cameron Shaw. HLB Mann Judd WA principal Kim Wallman. Liquidators and lawyers are no strangers to the try on and regardless of the ratio of success, it’s a practice very much based on the idea that if nothing is ventured, nothing can possibly be gained. Trying it on in respect of claims for insolvent trading might generally be thought to carry no risk…
RRI Advisory’s Trajan “John” Kukulovski. iNO readers may well remember our exclusive story of August 2, 2019 that exposed the tumult that had quietly engulfed Jirsch Sutherland back in 2015 as a consequence of an unspecified “confession” by former director Andrew Ngo. The alleged “confession” led to a meeting between ASIC officers and Jirsch founder Rod Sutherland and then managing partner Sule Arnautovic on November…
BRI Ferrier’s Peter Krejci. A judge hearing a motion days out from the hearing of a bid for orders that disputed assets belong to a company in liquidation and not its underlying trust said yesterday that the case involves features he’s not encountered in 40 years of practising law. “You were attempting to elicit the truth, and legal proceedings sometimes stand in the way of…
Darryl Kirk of Cor Cordis Brisbane. Well it turns out that when objectors to a liquidator’s remuneration application becomes in the court’s eyes adversaries, they can be liable for the liquidator’s costs of responding. The decision in question can be found at: Manicaros v Commercial Images (Aust) Pty Ltd [2022] QSC 83 which tells of the stiff resistance Cor Cordis partner Darryl Kirk encountered in…
Sydney liquidator Greg Parker has suffered another blow in his ongoing stoush with the former directors of Worldwide Specialty Property Services (WSPS) as he defends allegations of negligence and claims for damages. As explained in Lee v Parker (No 2) [2022] FCA 582 Parker last week lost his bid to force the ex-directors to stump up more than $500,000 in security for costs. The Clarence…
Grant Thornton’s Mike McCann. Mackay Goodwin principal Domenic Calabretta. No doubt the Minutes of the most recent meeting of creditors of CRCG Rimfire Pty Ltd will tell an interesting tale when they become available but iNO has gleaned sufficient intel to report that the incumbent deed administrators are no more. On May 11 creditors resolved to turf the Grant Thornton duo of Michael McCann and…
Liquidator Gavin Moss. Photo: iNO Images A recent decision out of the NSW Supreme Court shows how liquidators using the same lawyer who acts for creditors or the liquidator’s funder can quell conflict concerns. In this case Chifley Advisory principal Gavin Moss had to defend himself from allegations of multiple conflict-related breaches of duty by Ian Dresner, the director of churrasco operator Fogo Brazilia Holdings…