Hi Steve

The trouble is the average employee knows very little about the machinations
of the laws around insolvency. The insolvency industry knows this and too
often exploits it to there own ends, rather than for the benefits of the
Creditors.

In our case, we had our statutory priority as employees, removed without
even being told ie we ranked no higher than unsecured creditors. Seeing
through this, I believe this was a grab by the Administrator to maximise the
pool of funds against which they could charge fees and disbursements.

We found out almost too late that you need an independent expert (such as
Ken) to manage the Administrator/Liquidator/Receiver to ensure they act
appropriately.

Cheers
Antony


From: "GERLACH, Steven" <steven.gerlach@...>
Reply-To: otmushrooms@...
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 09:38:40 +1000
To: "'otmushrooms@...'" <otmushrooms@...>
Subject: RE: [Unpaid Mushrooms] Re: fighting an incompetent and negligent
VA


Antony,

Sounds exactly like what Deloitte did to us! Burn through the money and then
say there's nothing left!

Steve


> -----Original Message-----
> From: antonyhing [mailto:antony_hing@...]
> Sent: Wednesday, 27 October 2004 9:31 AM
> To: otmushrooms@...
> Subject: [Unpaid Mushrooms] Re: fighting an incompetent and negligent VA
>
>
>
> Hello Nick
>
> I am sure that others in our group would be interested in joining. Mind
> you our affairs have been
> going on for 2 years, so energy levels have waxed hi and lo over this time
> - I am sure you know
> what I am talking about! Only now are we starting to get some finalisation
> - and only because we
> have persisted and persisted.
>
> We have also been particularly fortunate to have appointed Ken Stout of
> Boutique Corporate
> Advisory to our cause. He is a one of the most talented of the insolvency
> practitioners in
> Melbourne as this has been his sole area of specialisation for the last 15
> years (he was a former
> partner of Ernst &Young). Ken's work on FNT Industries helped expose
> Lockwood's
> incompetence which eventually saw Lockwood struck off an insolvency
> practitioner.
>
> My area of specific interest is reclaiming super.
>
> The mechanism that Lockwood tried to effectuate was to essentially hive
> all the former debts of
> Swish into a Trust. This was intended, I believe, to quarantine the new
> Swish (which is a going
> concern) from the former debts. It was also intended that the pool of
> assets associated with this
> Trust would form the entirety of the means by which the
> Admininstrators/Trustees' fees would
> be paid and then of course all other creditors in rank of priority.
>
> A major issue has been the excessive level of fees charged by the
> Administrators, Horwaths
> (and their high level of disbursements for such things as legal advice
> from Deacons), while the
> value of the assets plummeted. As an example at the time of the
> Administration, there was
> c$250K in cash and 6Million shares @ 6c = c$360K. The Administrators have
> burned through
> the $250K cash and stood idly by while the shares have lost 66% in value
> down to 2c (they
> could have sold them at much higher prices). This is the same pool from
> which our super is
> supposed to be paid from.
>
> We argue as Administrators, they owe a special duty of care and that this
> is simply reckless and
> negligent conduct on their part. We see fee disgorgement as a valid
> request.
>
> I'm interested to hear your thoughts.
>
> Cheers
>
> Antony
>
>
> ---
>
>
> In otmushrooms@..., nick4mony <no_reply@y...> wrote:
> >
> > --- "antonyhing" wrote:
> >
> > > I'm a former employee of a Melbourne e-Business company called Swish
> >
> > In our deliberations some 10 months ago, we did actually talk about
> > your company - being another that had a Deed similar to yours.
> >
> > It is good that we have someone from the Swish group here. Are you
> > able to get more of your people to join?
> >
> > Nick.
>
>
>
>
>
> Reminder: this message is not private. Anyone (including non-members of
> this group) can read this message in the archives.
>
> Useful links:
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>



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