VA’s & DoCA’s

Veritas pair ousted by RSM duo

Whilst INO’s not intentionally focussing on Veritas Advisory, the firm certainly seems to have its cup full in recent times and this week we came across the interesting case of Peter O’Brien Constructions Pty Ltd, which recently passed from the control of Veritas principal Steve Naidenov to the RSM duo of Frank Lo Pilato and Jonathan Colbran. One of the most notable elements of this matter relates…


Payless auditor too anxious to attend examination

It might not have been around as long as God and the Devil but for genuine enmity can any rivalry match the hellfire-eclipsing friction generated when insolvency practitioners go auditors? In this particular chapter of the eternal struggle, Ferrier Hodgson’s Peter Gothard and Jim Stewart have finally taken the tridents to Moore Stephens’ Elizabeth Perez and Jeff Matchett, auditors of Payless Shoes. We say finally because the Ferriers duo…


dVT pair fighting to validate CarZapp appointment

dVT’s Dave Solomons and Antony Resnick have found themselves in the middle of a shareholder oppression suit which threatens to dislodge them as administrators of three entities from the CarZapp Group. The shareholders – plaintiff Domenic Ruberto and defendants Graham Meyerowitz and Mark Lasarow – fell out over a deal to sell the CarZapp auto-dealer phone app to Pickles Auctions Pty Ltd. As an aside, CarZapp’s…


Interim stats cement 2018 market leaders

Stratos Legal’s latest interim insolvency appointments rankings show the firms that were leading as at June 30 2017 are mostly maintaining their dominance in 2018. When it comes to creditors voluntary liquidations (CVLs), Worrells is leading the pack nationally thanks to its preeminence in Queensland and Victoria. It also performed strongly in New South Wales, ranking second only to Dominic Calabretta’s Mackay Goodwin which was NSW’s CVL front…


Court lops receivers’ fees by 50 per cent

It doesn’t do to mix your WIP. Nor does it do to confuse a judge. Hall Chadwick duo Richard Albarran and David Ross may have accidentally done both, and it’s cost them eighty grand. The recent lopping of around three quarters off their claim for remuneration as receivers of the DOH Family Trust follows a period during which Albarran and Ross have also acted as 1) voluntary administrators of…


Court agrees to exempt priority creditors at VAs’ cost

Over in West Australia three of Hall Chadwick’s movers and shakers have extracted an interesting decision in regard to exempting priority creditors from DoCAs from newly gowned Justice John Vaughan of the Supreme Court of the Sandgropers. In Richard Albarran, Brent Kijurina and Cameron Shaw as joint and several administrators of Coopers & Oxley Builders Pty Ltd (Administrators Appointed) [2018] WASC 161 (29 May 2018) the VAs…


VAs settle skirmish over Jamie Oliver accounts

Ask a judge to extend the convening period and he or she will generally want to know if the books and records are in the applicant’s possession and answering in the negative can jeopardise the chances of the extension being granted. Yet the BDO trio appointed voluntary administrators (VAs) of Jamie’s Italian Restaurant Group recently cajoled four extra months from the courts despite what Federal Court…


Jamie Oliver VA extension not about fees: BDO

Creditors of the failed Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group (Australia) are likely to go without a dividend the Federal Court heard yesterday, as voluntary administrators (VAs) BDO made an ex-parte application to extend the convening period for the second meeting of creditors by four months. It’s been widely reported that prior to it being placed in VA last month, BDO and KordaMentha had helped negotiate a sale…


Creditor activist challenges Worrells pair in Victoria

Having toppled a number of insolvency practitioners in Queensland, creditor activist group Subbies United (SU) looks set this afternoon to make its first attempt to dump an incumbent outside of the sunshine state. At 3:00pm in the Bourke Street offices of Charted Accountants Australia New Zealand (CAANZ) Melbourne, SU will hope to mobilise sufficient creditor disgruntlement to oust Worrells’ Ivan Glavas and Matthew Jess as voluntary administrators …


Current liquidators grapple with ex-VAs over liens

Still south of the border we find revealed in a judgement of the Victorian Supreme Court details of a civilised little scrap between Matthew Jess and Nathan Deppeler of Worrells (them again) and Matt Muldoon and Ken Sellers of Sellers Muldoon Benton, over the existence and extent of liens, both statutory and equitable. In the matter of Specialist Australian Security Group Pty Ltd (In Liquidation) (ACN 094 807…