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.

Bruck scrutiny attracts funds from ASIC and FEG

BTT director Philip Bart 

Photo: SiN Images

ASIC and the Department of Employment's (DoE) Active Creditor Program are for the first time simultaneously funding liquidators in a bid to unpick the 2014 restructure of Bruck Textiles Technologies (BTT).

BTT was wound up by a creditors voluntary liquidation (CVL) initiated by its shareholder, Australian Textile Group (ATG) on July 11, 2014. HLB Man Judd's Andrew Needham and Barry Taylor were appointed joint liquidators.

A day earlier, a newly incorporated and related entity, Australian Textile Mills Pty Ltd (ATM), purchased BTT's assets and $11.247 million in net liabilities for $1. The assetless BTT shell was left owing almost $4 million in employee entitlements.

ASIC's head of insolvency practitioner regulation, Adrian Brown told SiN that the government was onto the matter immediately.

"ASIC and the DOE have worked together on the Bruck Textiles matter from the first day of the liquidators' appointment," he told SiN.

"ASIC liaises closely with the DOE concerning its program and our AAF. This way, we can collaborate to determine how best to enforce the law (ASIC's role) and recover FEG (Fair Entitlements Guarantee) advances for the Commonwealth.

Needham and Taylor entered into a funding agreement with ASIC in December 2014 after advising in their August 5, 2014 report to creditors that the BTT directors "may be guilty of an offence under section 596AB of the Corporations Act".

It should be noted that no such finding has been made against BTT's directors. Director and Bruck Group owner Philip James Bart told SiN late last month he had provided all information necessary to demonstrate that the statute had not been breached. He declined to respond to questions submitted in advance of publication, quoting legal advice.