Refusing to make way for a replacement practitioner preferred by the ATO might not have been the best decision taken by Bruce Gleeson and Daniel Soire, who were in court this week making various applications in respect of controversial concreter Dalma Form Specialist Pty Ltd (DFS).
The Jones Partners pair are currently the liquidators of DFS, having been appointed voluntary administrators on December 27, 2023; deed administrators on April 12, 2024 and then liquidators after Federal Court judge Brigitte Markovic on August 14 2024 terminated the DoCA and ordered the company be wound up.
Within weeks of the pair’s initial appointment the ATO had been in their ear, advising that the company was part of a group suspected of evading up to $150 million in tax and that they might consider making way for Helm Advisory principal Stephen Hathway, who’d been appointed to a related entity in September 2023 after the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCoT) applied in the courts to have Admin Form Pty Ltd wound up.
Whilst Gleeson and Soire obtained orders this week approving some long delayed remuneration and entry into a costs agreement with lawyers Polczynski Robinson, Hathway is in the process of being appointed to more entities linked to the Dalma group with the assistance of the ATO’s cheque book.
At a meeting of the creditors of Plus Form (AUST) Pty Ltd scheduled to be held tomorrow Hathway is expected to replace McGrathNicol partners Anthony Connelly and Kathy Sozuo.
iNO’s mail is that KPT Restructuring principals Ozem Kassem and Jason Tang have also been petitioned by the DCoT to convene meetings so Hathway can replace them.
Three days ago at a meeting of creditors of All Accurate Pty Ltd Hathway supplanted O’Brien Palmer’s Daniel Frisken as liquidator.
At a meeting of creditors Plus Form (NSW) Pty Ltd on June 20 incumbent liquidator Domenic Calabretta was removed and Hathway appointed.
Back in March Hathway replaced Vanguard Insolvency’s Mohammad Najjar as administrator of SQM Group Australia Pty Ltd after Najjar was referred the job by Vaucluse-based Joy Accounting.
An examination of ASIC records shows Hathway has scythed through that portion of the profession who’ve accepted appointments to these entities, which are all linked by construction contracts emanating from Dalma Group.
At the meeting of creditors held on 11 August 2023 he replaced former administrators Glenn Livingstone and Alan Walker of WLP Restructuring and was subsequently appointed liquidator of SQM Group NSW Pty Ltd.
A few weeks later creditors of Admin Form resolved that he replace its administrators, Calabretta and Grahame Ward of Mackay Goodwin.
All these companies were in labour hire or construction-related businesses, which must be in contention for the most rorted of all commercial sectors, rife as it is with sharp practice and corruption.
In these circumstances Gleeson and Soire’s insistence on clinging to the DFS gig makes less and less sense as what funds were in DFS are consumed in investigations that have yet to yield recoveries.
On Monday the NSW Supreme Court heard there’s less than $40,000 in the DFS liquidation account but the liquidators want to press on with a plan to conduct public examinations into alleged voidable transactions and unreasonable, director-related transactions.
Connelly and Sozou examined the director of Plus Form (AUST) and got nothing but can’t recalls and don’t remembers for their efforts.
If Gleeson and Soire exhaust the last of the funds in an exercise that yields no recovery they’ll have nothing to show other than a broken relationship with Australia’s largest and most powerful referrer.
They did not respond to questions about the affairs of DFS prior to iNO’s publication deadline.
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With all these companies being brought under the control of Mr Hathway he will need to be extremely careful of any relevant conflicts of interest and duty in each administration, that is of course depending on whether it may be appropriate to seek a pooling order – something upon which I cannot comment as I do not know relevant relationships.