Bruno Marveggio in last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy

Former Adelaide United owner Bruno Marveggio has been given two weeks to secure approval from creditors as part of a last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy.

Bruno Marveggio has been given two weeks to avoid bankruptcy. Photo: Dave Cronin

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Former Adelaide United owner Bruno Marveggio has been given two weeks to secure approval from creditors as part of a last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy.

The Federal Circuit Court this morning allowed a two-week adjournment of a creditor’s petition filed by the Australian Taxation Office, which is seeking to bankrupt Mr Marveggio following the collapse of his building companies including Wunda Projects Australia and Coombs Barei Constructions.

Last week the ATO rejected a proposal from Mr Marveggio to compromise on outstanding debts totalling more than $525,000.

Mr Marveggio has been given two weeks to continue negotiations with the ATO, or alternatively to authorise a trustee or solicitor to call a meeting of creditors for consideration of a personal insolvency agreement.

A personal insolvency agreement — based on a creditor approved payment plan — is an alternative to bankruptcy, allowing Mr Marveggio to keep his home, travel overseas without restriction, buy assets and borrow money more freely and avoid the stigma associated with bankruptcy.

The ATO issued a bankruptcy notice against Mr Marveggio in September, based on a District Court judgment which found Mr Marveggio breached his duty as a director of W.P.A. Nominees — formerly trading as Wunda Projects Australia Partnership.

It found he had failed to make a number of company tax and superannuation payments from July 2014 to June 2016, while he was a director of the company, before it went into liquidation in February last year with debts of $5.3 million.

The company partnered with related construction business Wunda Projects Australia to undertake building projects across South Australia, Victoria and Queensland, including at Melbourne’s Crown Casino, the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and Jupiter’s Casino on the Gold Coast.

Wunda Projects Australia fell into liquidation in March last year with debts of $4.2 million.

Mr Marveggio’s former business partner George Charalabidis was sole director of both companies in the lead-up to their collapse, after Mr Marveggio stepped down as a director of both companies in October 2016.

He is sole shareholder in Wunda Projects and is a joint shareholder in W.P.A. Nominees.

In November, Mr Marveggio appeared in the Federal Court, where he denied having an ongoing role in Coombs Barei Constructions after stepping down as a director in November 2015.

He remained a shareholder in that company in the lead-up to its collapse in October 2017.

The matter is due back in the Federal Circuit Court on March 5.