Referrers

Liquidator who referred valuer facing replacement bid

O’Brien Palmer’s Liam Bailey. Certain creditors of a North Sydney-based ad agency are apparently so incensed with Liam Bailey that they’ve forced him to convene a meeting next week to consider replacing the O’Brien Palmer partner as liquidator of McCorkell & Associates (McCorkell). While trade media coverage has suggested the creditors have been irked by pre-appointment referral advice Bailey provided to sole McCorkell director Scott…


Court ousts administrator

Hall Chadwick partner Blair Pleash. The year has ended on a potentially awkward note for Hall Chadwick partner Blair Pleash after a court last week ordered an end to the administration of Jubilee Infrastructure Pty Ltd. Pleash, who flies the flag regularly for Hall Chadwick in Queensland, was appointed administrator of Jubilee on December 6. By December 9 one of the directors of the company…


Jirsch punted as Westpac declares preference

Chris Baskerville of Jirsch Sutherland. Insolvency practitioners need to be a thick-skinned and philosophical lot. Resentful creditors, regulators inclined to scape goat and duplicitous directors make for a generally adversarial stakeholder group that’s all too eager to pillory appointees at the merest whiff of an oversight. It’s no profession for those who need to be loved and when a practitioner cops a kicking they need…


Director’s escape from default curiously short-lived

Marcus Watters of Hall Chadwick. Hall Chadwick’s Richard Albarran. You would think that having convinced a court to declare a general security agreement (GSA) invalid and thereby ridding oneself of the receiver appointed pursuant to that GSA, that a director might be as it were, in the clear. Well not necessarily, and not in the case of Jin Resources (Aust) Pty Ltd (Jin) director Richard…


Liquidator facing examination over insolvent trading

Pitcher Partners’ Bryan Hughes. Sheridan’s Chartered Accountants principal Jennifer Low. It’s never a good look when a registered liquidator and senior partner of a national insolvency firm is summonsed to appear for public examination. When the examinee’s brother is involved in the brouhaha and there’s a glimmer of insolvent trading, well, it’s a sight to make eyes sore. “The (Titan) Board are satisfied they acted…


Pre-insolvency advisory fingered in phoenix judgment

PKF’s Petr Vrsecky. PKF partner Glenn Franklin. There was much hyperventilating last week after delivery of judgment in the matter of Intellicomms Pty Ltd (in liq) [2022] VSC 228 which record the first application of new laws aimed at combatting illegal phoenix activity. While it’s early days and the judgment could be overturned on appeal, few of the breathless commentators who explored this inaugural application…


Liquidator to examine referrer

Morton + Lee Insolvency’s Gavin Morton. There must always be a little more spice attaching to a public examination for both liquidator and examinee when the latter was the former’s referrer. A little more relish too perhaps. Following receipt of the summons to appear the referrer may well have thought: ‘Well don’t expect any more work from us old bean’, or words to that effect….


Another 11th hour VA fails to derail winding up

Worrells Con Kokkinos. iNO would not presume to speculate on whether it’s poor judgment, an entrepreneurial appetite for risk or sheer desperation that compels registered liquidators to sometimes accept appointments as voluntary administrators (VA) in situations where it would seem, even to your correspondent’s lay understanding, that only a liquidator will do. Such thoughts occurred however as iNO considered the very recent winding up of…


VAs eleventh hour bid to adjourn too long a shot

Accepting an appointment as a voluntary administrator (VA) late on a Friday knowing you’ll have to apply to adjourn a winding up application being heard the following Monday might be considered more than usually ambitious. Jirsch Sutherland’s Trent Devine, Bradd Morelli and Andrew Spring however had good reason to feel confident last week when they agreed to take on ASX-listed plastics-to-fuels developer Integrated Green Energy…


Bondi InJunction as liquidator resists removal

Liquidator Gavin Moss. Photo: iNO Images The hot sauce of cross examination was in full-flavoured evidence yesterday as iNO took another bite of proceedings in FOGO Brazilia Franchise Holdings Pty Ltd (FBFH). FBFH director, Rebel Sports co-founder and plaintiff Ian Dresner is seeking an inquiry into Chifley Advisory’s Gavin Moss, allegedly for demonstrating a lack of independence and misleading the court. Dresner also wants an…