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AAT, ASIC, Conduct, Discipline, Liquidators, Social/Professional 7 July 2023

Committee rules liquidator’s registration be cancelled

Richard Auricht South Australian liquidator Richard Auricht could be off to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) after a Schedule 2 disciplinary committee ruled that his registration be cancelled. In accordance with the committee’s ruling ASIC published the decision with reasons yesterday. See: https://download.asic.gov.au/media/gacn0ghu/20230626-richard-auricht-report-final.pdf “It is not the basis upon which the fees were incurred, or the entitlement to being paid that ASIC believes makes Mr…

Corporates, Deals & Departures, Liquidators, Social/Professional, Talent Transfer 5 July 2023

Cor Cordis Sydney haemorrhaging talent

Olvera Advisors Neil Cussen. AL Restructuring founder Andre Lakomy. As we pass into the new financial year iNO can update readers in respect of our recent reporting of ructions in the Sydney offices of Cor Cordis. As of this week it appears the Sussex Street headquarters of the national firm helmed from Melbourne by Cor Cordis managing partner Bruno Secatore has lost four registered liquidators,…

ASIC, Conduct, Conflict, DIRRIs, Discipline, Liquidators, Social/Professional 30 June 2023

Schedule 2 Committees missing in inaction

Woodgate & Co’s Giles Woodgate. After six months on light duties those individuals called upon to consider the allegations of misconduct that ASIC routinely levels against registered liquidators suddenly have a full in-tray. “The committee must decide within 45 business days after interviewing you whether or not you should be registered as a liquidator: s20-20(3)”. ASIC Regulatory Guide 258. Last week Sydney liquidator Giles Woodgate’s…

ATO, Bankruptcy, Careers in Arrears, Judgment, Litigation, Social/Professional 30 June 2023

Kapp saga continues as trustees fall short

Trustee in Bankruptcy Andrew Aravanis. Trustee in Bankruptcy Alexander Clark. The most likely outcome flowing from this week’s court ruling in the bitter fight between the trustees of bankrupt ex-Corr’s partner Phil Kapp and his wife Maryann is likely to be an appeal. “Although the bankruptcy trustees have had some success they have failed on most of their claims. Federal Court Judge Nye Perram. On…

Conduct, Creditors, Directors, Judgment, Liquidations, Liquidators, Litigation, Social/Professional 16 June 2023

Court ousts liquidators for abuse of process

Dye & Co’s Hamish MacKinnon. Dye & Co’s Nicholas Giasoumi. Issuing demands for payment of claims unproven at the time the demands are issued might well be a common practice but Federal Court judge David O’Callaghan has placed it on the endangered list. In his decision in Gadsden v MacKinnon (Liquidator), in the matter of Allibi Pty Ltd (in liq) [2023] FCA 647 Justice O’Callaghan…

Corporates, Deals & Departures, Social/Professional 9 June 2023

For some the time is right – new firms forming

Fort Restructuring co-founder Mark Robinson. Fort Restructuring co-founder Ken Whittingham. With the COVID freeze on decision-making thawing and restraints on the proper application of debt recovery and insolvency laws removed, practitioners are launching new firms in increasing numbers. Among them are Mark Robinson and Ken Whittingham, who’ve teamed up to form Fort Restructuring, an SME and creditor-focussed practice the pair plan to grow into a…

AAT, ASIC, Corporates, Liquidators, Social/Professional 7 June 2023

AFSL suspension a problem for veteran liquidator

FerrierSilvia’s Brian Silvia. One of the great challenges for the highly productive professional is resisting the temptation to spread oneself too thinly. There are only so many appointments, directorships and fiduciaries an individual can hold before their capacity to perform is diminished by an escalating volume of tasks, and if that tipping point is either not recognised or seen as another challenge to be surmounted…

Creditors, Directors, DIRRIs, Judgment, Litigation, Litigation Funding, ProvLiqs, Referrers, Social/Professional, VA's & DoCA's 26 May 2023

WA way on full display in GT Capital DoCA drama

PwC’s Simon Theobald PwC’s Robert Ditrich. You might have thought that when Perth-based litigation funder GT Capital Partners imploded last year with its founders exchanging aspersions at 10 paces, whoever was appointed to clean up the mess would have their work cut out for them. Well as it turns out, a DoCA’s been effectuated, new directors have taken over and the Supreme Court of West…

Costs, Judgment, Liquidators, Litigation, Social/Professional 19 May 2023

So you want to sell an insolvency practice?

CRS Warner principal Anthony Warner Steve Kugel of The Insolvency Experts. The seemingly endless wrangling over money owing by one insolvency practice partner to his former practice partner might actually be reaching a conclusion eight years after the pair split, with a NSW Supreme Court judge yesterday ruling on the final issues in dispute. “The defendants ask me to accept that, faced with the need…

Corporates, Judgment, Liquidations, Liquidators, Litigation, Social/Professional 19 May 2023

Curacao-style winding up at an end after 27 years

Insolvency marked another milestone last week when former Ferrier Hodgson partner Gary Trevor completed the torturous winding up of Bell Group NV (BGNV) almost three decades after being appointed liquidator by Australian courts of an administration ancillary to its parent insolvency in the Caribbean jurisdiction of what was then the Netherlands Antilles. In the Supreme Court of West Australia the Perth insolvency veteran obtained orders…