Godfrey delivers dollars to discharge debt

IT seems Murray Godfrey has found the $160,000 he needed to stave off potential bankruptcy. 

In the Federal Court today, lawyer Carlos Toda produced details of an arrangement that enables his client to avoid an embarrassing and potentially career-disrupting creditor's petition application. 

If it had proceeded, the hearing could have seen the Veritas Advisory founder bankrupted, forcing the cancellation or suspension of his liquidator's registration. Instead, the matter's been dismissed by consent.

The petition was brought by applicant creditor Graham Werry of Weriton Finance on October 23, 2013.

18 months earlier Godfrey had consented to District Court orders requiring him to pay Werry $160,000 by December, 2012. 

The deadline was missed and Werry turned up the heat, serving Godfrey - a registered liquidator and an official liquidator of the Supreme and Federal Courts - with a bankruptcy notice.

That was on July 5, 2013. Godfrey immediately sought to have the notice stayed or set aside. 

His application was dismissed and a sequestration order loomed. But at the 11th hour Godfrey produced something his pursuer is prepared to accept.

When contacted today Werry declined to go into detail, but he sounded very satisfied. Godfrey was less forthcoming.

Federal Court registrar Geoffrey Segal ordered that copies of the sealed consent agreement and other documents be delivered to the Official Receiver within two days.



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Scott and Pascoe poised to get Godfrey

PPB Advisory's Andrew Scott
Photo: SiN Images

MURRAY Godfrey, registered liquidator and official liquidator of the NSW Supreme Court and the Federal Court, is facing a creditor’s petition hearing over a $160,000 judgement debt.

The petition application was filed in the Federal Court on Wednesday, October 23. 

Also filed was a consent authority, signed a day earlier by Andrew Scott and Scott Pascoe of PPB Advisory. 

The filings come less than a week after a court dismissed Godfrey's application to have a bankruptcy notice set aside. 

Scott and Pascoe have agreed to act as trustees of Godfrey’s estate in the event the court orders sequestration and Godfrey is bankrupted.

If appointed, Godfrey will be the first Sydney-based insolvency practitioner the pair have on their books. They also manages the affairs of a bankrupt practitioner from Melbourne.

Murray Godfrey facing bankruptcy action

Murray Godfrey.
Photo Veritas Advisory

MURRAY Godfrey, founder of RMG offshoot Veritas Advisory, is potentially facing bankruptcy after a court last week dismissed his application to have a bankruptcy notice set aside.

In her judgement of October 18, newly-minted Federal Court Justice Melissa Perry outlines why Godfrey’s application - which argued that the notice should be set aside because it had been served twice and was capable of misleading him - must fail.

“I consider that a debtor in the applicant’s circumstances … would have understood that the act of second service would not absolve him of the responsibility to comply with the notice within the period of 21 days from the date of first service on 5 July 2013”, Justice Perry said.

Godfrey is being chased by Weriton Finance over a $160,000 debt incurred following consent orders made in the District Court in 2012. He declined to comment when contacted by SiN. It is not known if he intends to appeal.

Weriton Finance is associated with Graham Keith Werry, and DTC No. 1 Pty Limited (in Liquidation).

Werry, a property developer with a significant footprint in the Illawarra region, has had issues of his own recently, details of which are contained in this Enforceable Undertaking he provided to ASIC in March, 2011.

Godfrey consented to the District Court orders in March 2012. They required him to pay $160,000 to DTC No. 1 Pty Ltd by December 20, 2012.