“Let me guess, you’re calling about our friend Jon,” one of his exasperated associates sighs. By now, everyone who works in pubs and hotels knows about the plight of Jon Adgemis. So too, probably, does everyone who works in finance, a sector the businessman once ruled as KPMG’s best dealmaker.

Having left the firm in 2018, Adgemis put his deal brokering prowess to work cobbling together an empire that sprawls from the Karen Martini-fronted St Kilda diner Saint George to Maybe Sammy, the celebrated Sydney CBD cocktail bar. He also cobbled together an extensive list of lenders and a pile of debt that reaches $700 million, according to multiple creditors.