Pascoe and Ho blink on IGB’s Adgemis concerns

WLP Restructuring’s Scott Pascoe and Ben Ho are expected to adjourn this morning’s meeting of creditors of besieged pub czar Jon Adgemis for at least a month after being issued with a Direction to do so by the Inspector General in Bankruptcy (IGB).

“Despite the Inspector-General confirming the need for further investigation and additional information for creditors, you have instead indicated the issues raised by the Inspector-General are immaterial to the creditor’s decision and you intend to put the personal insolvency
agreement proposal forward for voting at the next creditors’ meeting scheduled for 29 August 2025.” Neville Matthew, National Manager – Education, Integrity and Enforcement Delegate of the Inspector-General in Bankruptcy.”

In correspondence to the WLP duo obtained by iNO and dated August 28 the IGB warned the WLPR pair that if they fail to comply with the Direction, the IGB will likely instruct them to refrain from taking any further bankruptcy appointments and then determine whether further disciplinary action is warranted.

The correspondence even refers to criminal penalties of imprisonment and fines of up to $39,600 in respect of conduct “that obstructs, hinders, intimidates or resists the Inspector-General or his delegates in the performance of functions under the Act”.

Chances the meeting won’t be adjourned? Nil. Chances the IGB will fund Pascoe and Ho’s further investigations? Nil.

The IGB also instructed the pair to distribute the correspondence to Adgemis’s creditors by no later than 9:00am today, three hours before the scheduled meeting at which Pascoe and Ho had intended to recommend that creditors accept Adgemis’s Personal Insolvency Agreement (PIA) promising a miserly 0.15 cents in the dollar on debts of $1.8 billion, in defiance of the concerns of the IGB and creditors such as Angas Securities.

That defiance is what prompted the IGB to take the next step.

“Despite the Inspector-General confirming the need for further investigation and additional information for creditors, you have instead indicated the issues raised by the Inspector-General are immaterial to the creditor’s decision and you intend to put the personal insolvency agreement proposal forward for voting at the next creditors’ meeting scheduled for 29 August 2025, the IGB said.

“This necessitates the Inspector-General taking further steps to maintain the integrity of the personal insolvency system. The Inspector-General requests your assistance in its investigation and is also issuing you a Direction.”

Among other things the Direction requires Pascoe and Ho to put to creditors a motion “to adjourn the Creditors’ Meeting until at least 11 am on Friday 26 September 2025 to enable further investigations to be undertaken”.

The Direction also required that Adgemis attend the meeting in person or via audio-visual link to answer questions, one of which might be in relation to his self managed super fund, documentation relating to which Adgemis has told Pascoe and Ho was lost when he left KPMG.

iNO will update as events unfold.