Liquidator Glen Crisp of RMS Bird Cameron Partners is continues to encounter challenges in recovering assets from defunct trucking and logistics firm Viking Group.
Crisp warns in a report to creditors, dated April 12, that there are insufficient funds to meet all the costs of the winding up that the Westpac bank had applied for last September, including to his full remuneration as liquidator.
By Rob McKay | May 4, 2012
Liquidator Glen Crisp of RMS Bird Cameron Partners continues to encounter challenges in recovering assets from defunct trucking and logistics firm Viking Group.
Crisp warns in a report to creditors, dated April 12, that there are insufficient funds to meet all the costs of the winding up, including his full remuneration as liquidator.
Indeed, there is unlikely to be a distribution to any class of creditor unless there is either further funding from creditors, a litigation funder or perhaps recourse to the Assetless Administration Fund, he says.
By last month, the seven-month liquidation and asset recovery process had cost $1.32 million.
His report notes Viking had operated a fleet of more than 500 vehicles comprising prime movers, trailers and associated transport equipment, light trucks, utes, forklifts, earthmoving equipment, cars and exotic sports cars, along with jet skis and a boat.
About 400 of the vehicles were owned by 13 financiers and leased to group companies under finance leases or hire-purchase arrangements.
“From my investigations, it would appear that there were approximately 160 leased assets in the company of which I have received approximately 70 to date, and approximately 60 freehold assets of which I have recovered approximately 25 to date,” Crisp, whose staff holds 200 boxes of incomplete books and records along with computers and servers, writes.
“I am unable to advise whether further assets will be recovered.
“Despite my requests, the director, former directors and other associates of the company have not been forthcoming when queried on the location of same.
“Furthermore, I have received numerous claims of ownership of assets by third parties”
As a result, he had commenced legal action to seize assets at a farm in Mickleham, just north of Melbourne in March last year, followed by raids at Victorian and Tasmanian properties in December, January and March this year.
Report in the Fairfax press on April 17 gave a flavour of proceedings, with industrial relations identity Bruce Townsend in court in Tasmania saying he had been given two Kenworth prime movers and some cars in a swap deal with Viking boss Steve Illiopoulos.
Crisp writes that he is still looking into a tax refund of $1.2 million deposited in the trust account of Viking’s accountants in mid-2011 and later distributed to “various parties” to see if they constitute “voidable preferences”.
Given the banckruptcy statuses of Viking directors Peter and Steve Iliopoulos, Crisp says, there was unlikely to be any commercial benefit to creditors in pursuing them on the way Viking traded before it failed.