You’d think that if the joint agency taskforce formed to tackle predatory pre-insolvency and illegal phoenix activity had visited your firm’s premises, the principals of said firm might reassess the way they do business. What, they might ask each other, is it that’s attracted the attention of the authorities? What can we do about it? Decrees might issue forth. Employees ordered to cease all activities….
Electronic communications are like confetti – uncontrollable once released – and it didn’t take long before details from yesterday’s meeting between ASIC, Treasury and ARITA to began appearing in SiN’s inbox. The meeting was arranged to discuss the controversial liquidators’ levy. To recoup the $9 million per annum ASIC says it spends regulating registered liquidators, the regulator has proposed that practitioners pay a fee of…
At its recent state conference in Perth, ARITA chief John Winter told members that neither the corporate regulator or Treasury had responded to multiple requests for detail about the proposed liquidators levy and that as a consequence he was considering lodging a freedom of information request (FOI). The comment prompted one SiN reader to make the observation that such a threat might not enhance the…
None of the likely recipients are confirming but SiN understands that the urgently anticipated draft Insolvency Practice Rules (IPRs) have been released by government for review by insolvency and reconstruction industry stakeholders. The word is that the first incarnation of the IPRs is already being discussed and SiN’s reading of the insolvency sediments yesterday did reveal that John Winter from the Australian Reconstruction Insolvency and…
David Ianuzzi is not going to forget his first time as lead receiver anytime soon. In just a few hours in the witness box on Monday the Veritas Advisory principal was forced to admit his treatment of certain debts in the 2014 receivership of Mentmore Pty Ltd had been flawed, that his initial 524 report needed correcting and that the only reason he hadn’t already…
There would not have been a drooping eyebrow among the 200-odd attendees present on Wednesday afternoon at Brisbane Town Hall where ARITA was holding its Queensland state conference. As part of a panel discussion titled: “Pre-insolvency shenanigans – arising from the ashes”, the ATO’s Michael Seddon nonchalantly revealed that more raids by the multi-agency anti-phoenix taskforce were imminent. Readers will recall – it was only…
One wonders what the Hruz’s of Albury think of the latest initiative to stamp out unscrupulous insolvency advisers. Josef and Yulia Hruz are the directors and owners of John Doe Pty Ltd, an inactive-seeming entity that’s not filed a form since 2007 according to company records. John Doe Pty Ltd also happens to be the name the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) used as an example in a letter it…
Well it sounded like the gig of a lifetime, albeit one for a bankruptcy trustee at the end of their career but that may no longer matter. The regulator has intervened. It began last week when Australia’s registered trustees in bankruptcy received an unsolicited email from Pieter de Bruyn of Personnel Concept Group (see: Unusual Offer For Retiree Trustee). The recruiter invited expressions of interest on…
Kemp Strang’s Peter Harrison has delivered a compelling summary of the risks attending to claims for unfair preference payments in the context of the May 13 judgment of Federal Court Judge Jim Edelman In the matter of FPJ Group Pty Ltd in Liquidation. The humbling affair involved Hall Chadwick’s David Ross – as liquidator of FPJ Group Pty Ltd – going after FPJ’s supplier, CSR Building Products. Ross…
Less than eight months out it must be obvious to whoever will be assistant treasurer once a government is formed that the start date for the Insolvency Law Reform Act 2016 (ILRA) must be changed. (No offence Kelly O’Dwyer but cabinet reshuffle is back on the playlist.) At present, the Insolvency Practice Rules (IPRs) are nowhere to be seen. Without them, the profession has no idea how…