Regulation/Legislation

ILGA investigates Club over 24 hour appointment

KPMG’s Morgan Kelly. Helm Advisory founder Stephen Hathway. The arbitrary powers of the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) have been on overt display these past few weeks in the curious case of the Sydney Portugal Community Club Ltd (Club). iNO readers may recall how we revealed last month that Helm Advisory’s Stephen Hathway and Phil Hosking had to resign appointments as voluntary administrators…


Helm duo dump gig as Liquor and Gaming deliberates

Helm Advisory founder Stephen Hathway. Helm Advisory’s Phil Hosking. Helm Advisory duo Stephen Hathway and Phil Hosking have resigned as administrators of The Sydney Portugal Community Club Ltd a day after being appointed thanks to their appointors overlooking the requirements of section 41 of the Registered Clubs Act 1976. The Helm pair accepted the appointment on March 15 and resigned immediately after learning that the…


Risks to SBRP highlighted in ruling on winding up

Integra Restructuring & Insolvency principal Adam Preiner. An application to adjourn the hearing of a winding up application whilst the applicant is subject to the Part 5.3B small business restructuring regime illuminates some of the potential risks facing registered liquidators who accept appointments as a Small Business Restructuring Practitioner (SBRP). In this case the liquidator is Sydney-based Adam Preiner of Integra Restructuring & Insolvency (INTRI)…


The risks of tapping proceeds of crime for fees

O’Brien Palmer’s Daniel Frisken. Never presume to position yourself between the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police and an allegedly ill-gotten dollar. As O’Brien Palmer’s Daniel Frisken has discovered, and as is detailed in the matter of The Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police v Pharmacy Depot Hurstville Pty Ltd (in liq) (No 2) [2020] NSWSC 1571 the outcome is unlikely to prove favourable to…


Could $850,000 lighten ASIC metrics burden?

ASIC’s top liquidator cop Thea Eszenyi. There’s nothing like internal ructions inside a big organisation – think chairpersons paid way too much to move from Hong Kong – to loosen a few lips so when ASIC’s chief liquidator cop Thea Eszenyi referred to $850,000 in costs the regulator had recovered from chastened liquidators who she declined to name it wasn’t hard for iNO to establish…


ARITA, TMA square off over SME reforms

TMA Australia President Carl Gunther. There’s nothing like starvation, marinated in the promise of feasts to come, to expose the rifts between rivals. To wit the recent outbreak of unpleasantries between the Australian Restructuring and Turnaround Association (ARITA) and the Turnaround Management Association (TMA), which began after ARITA announced late last month that it had detected a potential issue with section 588GAAA Safe harbour— temporary…


McGrathNicol trio’s “relevant non-disclosure”

McGrathNicol’s Jason Preston. It wouldn’t do to make too much of the decision of Victorian Supreme Court judicial registrar Ian Irving In the matter of ACN 168 479 614 Pty Ltd (Receivers and Managers Appointed) (Administrators Appointed) [2020] VSC 333 (5 June 2020) but his rulings on disclosure highlight the exacting standards applied to insolvency practitioners seeking to grill directors in the witness box. As…


Liqs defeat tax office to recover DoCA payments

Pitcher Partners’ Gess Rambaldi. Pitcher Partners’ Andrew Yeo. Pitchers Partners’ Andrew Yeo and Gess Rambaldi have extricated an unlikely victory over the Deputy Comissioner of Taxation (DCoT) in respect of payments made by a company subject to a deed of company arrangement (DoCA). As is revealed in Yeo, in the matter of Ready Kit Cabinets Pty Ltd (in liq) v Deputy Commissioner of Taxation [2020]…


Lessors go feral as VAs extend liability exemption

Deloitte’s Sal Algeri. It was lessors gone feral in correspondence between legal representatives of aircraft owners and Virgin’s voluntary administrators (VAs) last week as the owners of the (mostly) grounded fleet sought to extract agreements and undertakings in exchange for refraining from challenging the VA’s application to extend their exemption from personal liability for aircraft lease payments to May 26. The lessors are owed around…


COVID-19 wreaking havoc on delayed VAs

KPMG’s Gayle Dickerson. KPMG’s Ryan Eagle Another day, another judgement detailing the havoc wreaked on the voluntary administrations process (VAs) by COVID-9. In Eagle, in the matter of Techfront Australia Pty Limited (administrators appointed) [2020] FCA 542 Justice Kathleen Farrell provided a conveniently succinct account of the obstacles the virus had placed in the path of KPMG partners Ryan Eagle and Gayle Dickerson, who were…