ASIC acknowledges liquidators' belated fall

RECENT hip surgery hasn't slowed Adrian Brown and today a fresh pair of scalps has been formally acknowledged as having fallen foul of the ASIC insolvency chief's continuing compliance jihad.

In a media release ASIC announced it had extracted enforceable undertakings (EUs) from Sydney-based registered liquidators, Peter George Burton and Brian Hugh Allen after a review of various external administrations found the Neutral Bay-based pair had failed to adequately and properly discharge their duties.

The EUs effectively ban Burton and Allen from reapplying to be registered as liquidators for five years but in reality the two had voluntarily walked the plank well before today.

Allen formally requested ASIC to cancel his registration as an official and registered liquidator back on March 16, 2015.

According to Burton's EU he stopped practicing in December 2015 but unlike Allen, there is no indication that he formally requested ASIC cancel his tickets.

If you want to read Burton's EU, which contains a list of the appointments scrutinised click here. Alternatively, click here for Allen's EU.

According to the regulator it reviewed various external administrations and found the men failed to adequately discharge their duties in that they did not:

• conduct, or alternatively properly document, pre-appointment independence reviews;
• disclose the existence of indemnities;
• disclose all pre-appointment communications and meetings with relevant persons or entities;
• take steps to protect and secure assets in a timely manner;
• adequately investigate the company's affairs or, failed to adequately document those investigations;
• provide creditors with adequate remuneration reports and drew remuneration where they were not entitled to do so;
• identify and report misconduct to ASIC;
• hold annual meetings of creditors; and
• maintain proper books and records.

ASIC said that not each and every one of its views apply to all of the administrations it looked at and it acknowledged that the two men had cooperated.

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