Veteran liquidator avoids winding up

The puddle of liquidators in West Australia is generally thought to be a few tadpoles short of what’s needed to maintain a population unblighted by the possibility of conflict so it might have been tough to find a local able to act as liquidator of Anthemis Pty Ltd, a private corporate vehicle wholly controlled by registered liquidator and Perth insolvency luminary Garry Trevor.

“It was a mistake, it was overlooked and it has been settled in full.” Garry Trevor.

Last month local media reported the filing of winding up proceedings against Anthemis brought by the West Australian State Solicitors Office (SSO) on behalf of the Commissioner of State Revenue in the West Australian division of the Federal Court.

In the aftermath of the commencement of those proceedings Trevor reportedly told journalists that the action had been brought in respect of unpaid land tax on properties Anthemis controlled in City Beach and Wannanup.

“It was a mistake, it was overlooked and it has been settled in full,” The West Australian reported Trevor as saying.

Recent developments suggest the veteran liquidator – best known for his decades-long magnum opus winding up Bell Group NV – had every reason to be confident when responding to the media’s enquiries, with a notice advising that the winding up application had been withdrawn filed with the court on February 2.

This would suggest Trevor’s indeed paid the fees and any penalties that might have applied and is now free to get on with concluding the winding of the late Alan Bond’s Netherland Antilles-based bond issuer, to which the courts appointed Trevor liquidator in 1996.

The question remains though why the SSO brought the proceedings?

Bell Group aficionados will recall that in 2016 the High Court overturned laws that had been drafted by the SSO for the purpose of enabling the the WA state government to seize $1.7 billion in the possession of the Bell Group liquidators.

No doubt the bringing of now abandoned proceedings against Anthemis was mere coincidence and should in no way be taken as indicating an absence of depth in the WA state government’s legal apparatus, or alternatively for that matter, the presence of a deep and lingering resentment.