Litigation

Leigh to defend PPBA/Neolido fraud claim

David Leigh, the former PPB Advisory (PPBA) partner who stunned the profession after it emerged he had allegedly pinched $800,000 to pay debts, is set to stun again. In the Supreme Court of Queensland yesterday, Leigh filed a notice of intention to defend a claim for recovery of the funds, launched on February 28, 2018 by PPBA. From what can be gleaned from the document…


BDO trio appealing Mossgreen judgment

This afternoon lawyers for BDO partners James White, Andrew Sallway and Nick Martin will return to the Federal Court hoping to reverse the April 9, 2018 judgment of Justice Nye Perram in the matter of Mossgreen Pty Ltd (Administrators Appointed) [2018] FCA 471. Last Monday the judge ruled that the BDO trio – who were appointed administrators of the gallery and auction house on December 21,…


PPB pair’s consents preferred for crack at Wolli Creek

Riad Tayeh came within a whisker of a plumb provisional liquidators role yesterday but Steve Parbery and Glenn Livingstone pipped the dVT Group principal at the post. Although late comers, the PPB Advisory pair also vaulted over five others lined up with consents to act as provisional liquidators of NR Wolli Creek, which ANZ placed into receivership in June 2015. The five were EY’s Marcus Ayres and Brett Lord,…


Worrells duo defending DoCA decision

Worrells’ South Australia duo Nick Cooper and Dominic Cantone are preparing for a bare knuckle brawl with Adelaide Brighton Concrete Limited (ABCL) over their endorsement of a Deed of Company Arrangement (DoCA) that is not to the liking of the construction materials behemoth. Cooper and Cantone became deed administrators of the DoCA just before Christmas last year after a brief stint as voluntary administrators (VAs) of ABCL…


Cor Cordis pair overlooked as ATO intervenes

We can’t be certain at this early stage of our Sinvestigation but the recent move by the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT) on the incumbent liquidators of Italian Prestige Jewellery bears a passing resemblance to the DCoT’s GST-avoidance case against ABC Refinery. Orders handed down by Justice Brigitte Markovic yesterday in the Federal Court reveal that the DCoT has applied to have “proposed additional liquidators”…


FEG V McGrathNicol could resolve 433 costs questions

If the former receivers of Hastie Services continue resisting Henry Carr and his FEG Recovery Team to the point where their dispute goes to hearing then the insolvency profession at large might derive some benefit, at least in terms of clarity on currently clouded questions as to costs. (Apologies for the absence of an alliteration alert). Carr and his recovery team are adamant that the…


PPB’s preferred picks ousted by BDO duo

PPB Advisory’s lengthy association with the troubled Neolido Holdings ended yesterday and so complete was the severance that the top tier firm was denied even its preferred choice of replacement liquidators. As SiN reported in Collateral Damage: Sparks To Resign From Neolido PPBA partner Grant Sparks applied last week to resign as liquidator of Neolido Holdings in the wake of the misappropriation allegations levelled at his former…


Liquidator and lawyer tangle over costs assessment

Seems that when a liquidator is being pursued for costs by a lawyer in a local court, trying to resolve the issues via the costs assessment process is not going to fly, at least not according to NSW Supreme Court judge Francois Kunc. WKA Legal Pty Ltd v Gleeson [2018] NSWSC 318 details how liquidator and Jones Partners principal Bruce Gleeson has for several years been at…


CRCG: VA’s betting DoCA will trump disputed DCA

The report to creditors of failed construction joint venture CRCG-Rimfire contains some instructive detail in relation to administrations where the major stakeholder is also a state-owned enterprise from communist China. Grant Thornton’s Mike McCann and Said Jahani were appointed voluntary administrators (VAs) late last year and have turned out a hefty 217 page report ahead of this morning’s meeting in Brisbane, where creditors will either vote to…


PwC’s Vickers on collision course with Ostwald COI

PwC’s Derrick Vickers and the Committee of Inspection (COI) of the failed construction contractor Ostwald Bros Pty Ltd (OB) are set to clash when the parties convene next week for the hearing of Vicker’s rule 80-55 court application to validate transactions he entered into with various former COI members whilst trading OB in administration and in liquidation. Minutes of an informal COI meeting held yesterday reveal…