Olvera’s Gupta and Adgemis gigs under scrutiny

Damien Hodgkinson has been in the thick of it in recent times and on Monday it showed, with the Olvera Advisors founder resisting subpoenas in the morning before submitting to a grilling in the afternoon.

This is the result when an insolvency practitioner gets too close to overstretched corner cutters.

Proximity becomes opportunity, which other practitioners will then exploit.

In Hodgkinson’s case the potential opportunities for rival practitioners to apply the thumb screws are to be found in the collapses overseen by Sanjeev Gupta and Jon Adgemis.

Hodgkinson has been in the thick of the Gupta-engineered OneSteel fiasco, acting as advisor to Gupta and his Gupta Family Group Alliance (GFGA) and as a referrer when the time has come to appoint a VA to one or other entity within the drowning steel and mining group, which KordaMentha sold to Gupta out of the Arrium Limited collapse in 2016.

Hodgkinson’s involvement with Gupta has attracted the interest of the liquidators of Tahmoor Coal Pty Ltd (Tahmoor), a GFGA asset set on the path to insolvency when a receivable in the order of $430 million due to it from OneSteel was instead paid to Tahmoor shareholder and GFGA sibling, Liberty Primary Metals Australia (LPMA) as an in-specie dividend.

Hodgkinson was the referrer when in February Tahmoor was placed into VA, being described in the administrators’ DIRRI as “providing advisory services to the Company”.

He was also the referrer to Michael Brereton, Sean Wengel and Rashnyl Prasad of William Buck on the LPMA appointment.

Tahmoor was subsequently placed into liquidation with McGrathNicol partners Shaun Fraser and Jonathan Henry replacing incumbent administrators Joe Hayes and Christopher Johnson of Wexted Advisors.

Fraser and Henry have managed to agree a deal to sell the Tahmoor mine, although the transaction awaits ACCC and FIRB approval but they’ve also been busy seeking to have declared void a curious security arrangement which saw Tahmoor grant an ALLPAP with some exemptions to Global Loan Agency Services Australia Nominees Pty Limited (GLASAN) in October last year.

As part of that process they’ve commenced proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court and sprayed notices to produce at the appropriate targets, one of whom is Hodgkinson. On Monday the court heard he’s seeking to set aside subpoenas Fraser and Henry have issued in their efforts to force him to disgorge.

Hodgkinson however wasn’t present at the hearing, possibly because he was preparing himself for questioning by counsel for the liquidators probing the collapse of Adgemis’s Public Hospitality Group.

Hodgkinson and Adgemis go way back, both having been partners at KPMG.

Unsurprisingly, when the interest rate environment became inhospitable for over-extended borrowers, Adgemis approached Hodgkinson for advice in respect of his ailing Public Hospitality Group.

That advice and the extent of Hodgkinson’s involvement is now the subject of investigations being conducted by BRI Ferrier duo Peter Krejci and Jonathon Keenan as ATO-funded liquidators of Adgemis’s JAGA Medical Supplies Pty Ltd and on Monday afternoon Hodgkinson took to a Federal Court witness box.

Hodgkinson was questioned about his position as a director of Linchpin Hospitality Pty Limited, which had been set up in 2024 to manage various Sydney pubs in the Public Hospitality portfolio.

Linchpin had previously denied that Adgemis had any involvement in the Company but an email from Adgemis to Hodgkinson dated January 13, 2025 asked Hodgkinson to appoint Monaco-based investor and long time Adgemis associate Marco Bettelli be appointed as sole director.

Hodgkinson responded that he didn’t know what grounds Adgemis would have for appointing a director but the ASIC record shows Bettelli replacing Hodgkinson as sole director of Linchpin on January 16, 2025.

Linchpin was subsequently placed into the hands of Balance Insolvency’s Tim Cook as administrator in September 2025. Cook’s DIRRI indicates that Olvera Advisors was the referrer.

ASIC records also list Hodgkinson as Linchpin’s sole shareholder but Hodgkinson told iNO today that that was no longer the case and that he only ever held between five and 10 per cent of Linchpin Hospitality with the remainder controlled by Bettelli’s Amina Capital.

He also said Linchpin Hospitality is a subsidiary of Bettelli’s Linchpin Leisure Group, which is not in any form of external administration.

Cook was subsequently examined yesterday and Adgemis’s internal accountant Alexander Andruska is being put through the wringer today, though his examination was interrupted late this morning when the liquidators’ lawyers became aware that a clerk from Murphys Law, which is also acting for Adgemis, had been sitting at the back of the court the entire morning without declaring her connection.

This precipitated an adjournment to allow Murphys Bryan Wrench – who’s never anything but flat out – to attend the court and provide the appropriate undertaking not to convey to Adgemis any questions or answers.

Andruska’s examination is continuing so for the time being Hodgkinson can turn his mind back to Fraser and Henry and their annoying subpoenas.

Meanwhile, PKF managing director Bob Bell is due to undergo his own grilling, given PKF’s role as external accountant for Adgemis-controlled entities alleged to have engaged in $77 million worth of sham tax arrangements.