Social/Professional

Jorgensen to be jettisoned as Hall Chadwick muscles in

Liquidator Paul Jorgensen. We understand a meeting of creditors of Unique Urban Built (UUB) is scheduled to take place this morning in the offices of PKF South Australia and that the liquidator appointed – Paul Jorgensen of PKF South Australia – has chosen not to attend. INO’s mail is that Jorgensen ceded the job of chairing the meeting at PKF Adelaide’s Flinders Street office to…


Deloitte undertaking liquidator survey despite dispute

ASIC’s Thea Eszenyi. You wouldn’t know it based on the Australian Financial Review’s (AFR) headline this morning but Deloitte and ASIC are in fact still speaking to each other and registered liquidators should be worried. The Fin’s Professional Services editor Edmund Tadros reported that Deloitte had laid into ASIC after the regulator apparently determined Deloitte’s 32 per cent audit quality problem rate ranked well above…


ARITA Conference 2019

Royal Commission assisting counsel Michael Hodges QC. SEERS restructuring chief Mohsin Meghji. Advertorial Issues of import, insiders speaking frankly and in-depth, explorations of emergent trends by experts from inside the tent – this is a sample of what awaits those attending ARITA’s 2019 National Conference, scheduled to take place in Melbourne next month. For the offshore restructuring buffs (and who isn’t?) organisers have a particular…


Lady liquidator on the loose

At Jirsch Sutherland no more. Ginette Muller. Image supplied. Little more than a year after merging her boutique advisory with Jirsch Sutherland’s Brisbane office Ginette Muller has stunned her partners by resigning. In a statement yesterday, Jirsch Queensland partner Chris Baskerville expressed regret at the departure of his old boss just 14 months after GM Advisory and Jirsch merged in March 2018. “There was a…


Liquidator admits errors on Unique Urban Built

Liquidator Paul Jorgensen. PKF Adelaide partner Paul Jorgensen has reportedly attended to a range of deficiencies in his handling of the liquidation of South Australian builder Unique Urban Built after the issues were helpfully brought to ASIC’s attention by turnaround advisor Eddie Griffiths. Local media outlet InDaily reported this week that in a May 22 report to creditors, Jorgensen admitted that creditors had not been…


IP’s days look numbered

Artemis Insolvency’s Peter Dinoris. Queensland liquidator and trustee in bankruptcy Peter Dinoris could be preparing to exit the formal end of the insolvency game after the IP transferred dozens of files to a rival. The Supreme Court of Queensland this week made orders transferring 44 of Dinoris’s court liquidations (CLs) and creditors voluntary liquidations (CVLs) to Jonathan McLeod and Bill Karageozis of McLeod Partners. INO…


Lend Lease looking beyond Ferriers’ imminent exit

The for lease signs are well and truly up at Level 25, One International Tower Barangaroo where Ferriers Hodgson (Ferriers) is preparing to vacate ahead of the completion of its takeover by KPMG. INO’s property operatives advise that landlord Lendlease has begun marketing the space ahead of the departure of the Ferriers’ team, which must occur before the June 30, 2019 deadline for completion of…


Ownership scrutinised as ex-partners fight over WIP

Insolvency Experts’ principal Steve Kugel. CRS Warner principal Anthony Warner The long running dispute between Sydney liquidators Anthony Warner and Steve Kugel continues to fester with the pair now warring over the details of an accounting of the value of WIP from their partnership, which disintegrated in 2014. In the NSW Supreme Court yesterday Justice Guy Parker – who was observed spending parts of the…


Liquidators to pay for ASIC’s litigation losses

Despite a court finding there was no phoenix activity ASIC persists in identifying one current and one former liquidator as having been prosecuted for phoenix activity. Once ASIC’s bid for an inquiry into ex-liquidator Andrew Wily and current practitioner David Hurst was dismissed with orders that the regulator also pay the respondents’ costs some among INO’s audience began to articulate the inevitable question. Will ASIC’s…


Judge labels ASIC vexatious as inquiry bid quashed

Don’t be fooled he’s thrilled. Liquidator David Hurst (R) with lawyer Joe Scarcella. An application for a judicial inquiry into the conduct of Andrew Wily and David Hurst has been dismissed with the judge describing the corporate regulator’s pursuit of Wily as vexatious. Delivering judgment in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, Justice Paul Brereton apologised for the time it had taken him to provide a…