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. 

Prentice wins possession after Coshott claims dismissed

The Bunyala Road property of bankrupt
Robert Coshott to be repossessed by Max Prentice.
Photo: SiN Images

BANKRUPTCY trustee Max Prentice has won possession of a rambling property in Bunyala Road, Bellevue Hill valued at up to $4 million.

On Tuesday, Federal Court Judge Robert Buchanan ordered the large residential home vest with Prentice as trustee for sale.

The judge gave the bankrupt, Robert Gilbert Coshott, his wife Ljiljana and their sons James and Michael 42 days to clear out. You can read Coshott V Coshott (2013) here.

The BPS Recovery partner's win, which includes costs, was facilitated by insolvency lawyer Sally Nash. It concludes a relatively short court battle that was preceded by years of litigation between the bankrupt, his former trustee John Burke, and more recently, the bankrupt's son James. 

Burke relinquished the appointment in February this year, leaving the way open for Prentice to attempt to recover a half share of the large home.

EXCLUSIVE: Fevola bound for bankruptcy court

LOAN sharks and gambling, rehab and debt. No prizes for guessing Brendan Fevola is the subject of this story, the next chapter of which could play out in the bankruptcy courts where the troubled AFL legend is being chased for a relatively minuscule $7,000 debt.

Last month a creditor's petition naming Fevola as respondent debtor was filed in the Queensland registry of the Federal Circuit Court. If the debt isn't settled beforehand, the former sporting superstar could be bankrupted.

According to the petition, Brisbane property developer Luciano Menniti is chasing $7,296.08c, constituting funds he claims he loaned to Fevola in 2010, around the time the beleaguered star was in Brisbane undergoing rehabilitation for depression, as well as alcohol and gambling addiction. SiN sought comment from Fevola's via his manager Marty Pask of Essentially Group but did not receive a response by time of writing.

It was during this period that loan sharks wielding baseball bats allegedly turned up at the offices of Fevola's former managers, Velocity Sports demanding prompt repayment. Sources say some debts were settled swiftly. Other lenders were persuaded to wait. 

Mark Levi "persistently dishonest" - CALDB

THE decision by the Companies Auditors and Liquidators Disciplinary Board (CALDB) to strip Mark Darren Levi of his liquidator's registration has been upheld after the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) rejected for a second time the Titan Advisory founder's application for a stay.

In judgement published this week, AAT deputy president Robin Handley found no reason to grant a stay, or agree to Levi's request that the CALDB decision be kept confidential. (See the full judgement here)

Levi's lawyer, John Sutton of Armstrong Legal, said today his client would apply to have CALDB's decision set aside at a full hearing of the ATT. Levi denies the allegations that lay at the heart of CALDB's deliberations.

CALDB ruled Levi unfit to hold a liquidator's registration on July 2, 2013 after a three day hearing last May.

The CALDB hearing stemmed from an application to the board by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on October 12, 2012.

ASIC sought the cancellation of Levi's registration as a liquidator, alleging that in April 2009 and again in October 2009, while working for Pitt Street liquidator Jamieson Louttit & Associates (JLA), Levi used funds from Biseja, a company in receivership, to pay his personal tax.

Obeid's Streetscape DoCA terminated

Streetscape Projects director
Moses Obeid. Photo: Optus Zoo

THE deed of company arrangement (DoCA) governing Moses Obeid’s Streetscape Projects is toast after a court yesterday ordered the controversial DoCA be dissolved.

In the NSW Supreme Court, Justice Ashley Black terminated the deed and, under the relevant sections of the Corporations Act, ordered that the termination give the same effect as if a special resolution to wind the company up had been passed.

As a consequence deed administrators Ozem Kassem and Robert Kyte of Cor Cordis are out and Deloitte’s senior insolvency operator David Lombe is in. 

Appointing Lombe as  liquidator is a victory for City of Sydney Council, which brought the application as Streetscape's major unsecured creditor. 

Brown and Albarran parted by conflict concerns

Etienne Lawyers' chairman Steven Brown

Etienne Lawyers chairman Steven Brown has ceded representation of regular clients Richard Albarran and Blair Pleash to a rival firm. 

A change of solicitor notice filed in the NSW Supreme Court shows that the Hall Chadwick insolvency duo are now relying on Hicksons Lawyers to defend them in a stoush with a disgruntled creditor.

In a statement of claim filed in October 2012, Albarran and Pleash are accused of managing the affairs of a company subject to a Deed of Company Arrangement (DoCA) in a manner prejudicial to creditors.

Among other things, the plaintiffs claim Albarran and Pleash breached their fiduciary duty by allowing Etienne - the deed administrators' legal advisers - to amass $790,000 in legal fees.

Albarran and Pleash - and Etienne for that matter - reject the allegations, arguing the more than $1.4 million in combined legal, administrator and other fees incurred over a three year period result from the failure of the company's warring creditors to agree to a solution.

The matter is set down for directions in August and when the time comes, Albarran and Pleash will have to get used to having a newcomer in their corner.

Brown has had Albarran’s back in some tight spots in the past. In 2009 he saved the Hall Chadwick high-flyer from bankruptcy, convincing a judge to allow Albarran to pay a $1.6 million judgement debt in instalments.

The final payment – owed to Hellier Capital’s Graham Hellier - was reportedly due in February this year.

But with Etienne’s fees at the heart of this latest row, Brown has chosen to eliminate the possibility of a conflict or perception of conflict by relinquishing the gig.

Email SiN