Peter Dinoris: Word is that AFSa would like a chat. INO’s spent part of this week trying to corroborate multiple reports coming across our desk advising that Artemis Insolvency principal Peter Dinoris may be facing some form of conduct action in relation to his trustee’s ticket. INO makes no suggestion of wrongdoing and at time of writing the subject of those reports had not responded…
Deregistered Trustee David John Leigh. Don’t you love this initiative by the regulators to make registered practitioners responsible if a disgraced ex-trustee or liquidator weedles their way back into the game? The thought occurred to INO following Wednesday’s announcement by ASIC in regards to David John Leigh, the former PPB Advisory partner who misappropriated $800,000 from a liquidation account between July and November in 2017. The committee…
Rob Naudi: taking over after de Vries and Solomons resigned dVT Group’s Anton de Vries and David Solomons have had to relinquish their role as trustees of a bankrupt estate, due to differences between creditors unrelated to the bankrupt and those as closely related as creditors could be. Replacing them is Rodgers Reidy’s Rob Naudi, who’s been anticipating a call up since the middle of…
Has any insolvency practitioner ever said: there’s never been a better time to be a gatekeeper of the financial system? If so, they are probably long since retired. In this day and age, regulators are at risk of turning the gatekeepers into turnkeys, if not inmates. For the source of our cynicism, we refer to the contents of a letter, dredged from the toxic silts…
Deregistered Trustee David John Leigh. When one has already sought to have one’s registration as a trustee in bankruptcy suspended, a show cause notice (SCN) from the personal insolvency regulator is unlikely to shock. Such then was the apparent indifference with which admitted fraudster David John Leigh, the former PPB Advisory partner who in 2017 filched $800,000 from a liquidation account for reasons undisclosed, treated…
There’s a saying that the margin’s in the mystery. The more complex the offering the easier it is to conceal fees and gouges. And nobody wants to admit they haven’t a clue how the investment they’ve backed nets a dime. Now whilst a trustee in bankruptcy is often of prudent character he or she might consider invoking maxims about margins and mystery when contemplating whether…
Correction & Clarification You know you’re in for a rollicking read when a judge begin his reasons thus: “The appellant (Mr Moss) is a solicitor. For reasons that are not presently relevant, he decided to invest in timber and walnuts. The result has not been a happy one.” The Moss on this particularly log is Sydney lawyer Stephen Moss, formerly of Slater & Gordon, and…
In all the excitement surrounding the Kilarnee and Amerind cases, similar questions about rights of indemnity and exoneration as they apply to trustees have been somewhat overlooked in the bankruptcy context, but the issues have been ventilated, most recently in Lane (Trustee), in the matter of Lee (Bankrupt) v Commissioner of Taxation (No 3) [2018] FCA 1572 (19 October 2018). This one involves a preference paid…
In the decision of Jones and Inspector-General in Bankruptcy [2018] AATA 3260 (5 September 2018) the indispensability of rigour is made abundantly clear. Back in September 2016 West Australian-based bankruptcy trustee George Lopez lodged an objection under Section 149B with the Official Receiver to the discharge from bankruptcy of Yozique art aficionados, Sharon and Garrick Jones. The Melsom Robson partner resolved to lodge the objection after deciding that the now…
Pitcher Partners Andrew Yeo and Gess Rambaldi have extracted a decision from the Federal Court that goes a long way to affirming the insolvency law reforms dealing with causes of action and what insolvency practitioners can do with them. “The decision hopefully supports the closely related law reforms from September 2017,” Yeo and Rambaldi told Insolvency News Online (INO). “Prior to the changes, the liquidator…