ASIC hopes to start a court inquiry into the conduct of Jason Bettles, from insolvency firm Worrells

A Gold Coast liquidator who has overseen plenty of failed companies is now facing some unwanted scrutiny himself from the corporate cop.

UNWANTED SCRUTINY

A Gold Coast liquidator who has overseen plenty of failed companies is now facing some unwanted scrutiny himself from the corporate cop.

ASIC announced on Wednesday that it had filed an application with the Federal Court requesting an inquiry into the conduct of Jason Bettles, a longtime partner at insolvency outfit Worrells.

Bettles acted as the liquidator of the Members Alliance group of companies from July 2016 until his resignation a year later.

Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants' partner Jason Bettles. Photo: Jerad Williams

The regulator alleges in that case that Bettles may have “failed to maintain independence, did not exercise the degree of care and diligence of a liquidator and failed to discharge his obligations as liquidator’’.

Members Alliance allegedly sold fraudulent house and land packages by cold-calling clients and the group of about 30 companies collapsed in 2016 owing more than $40 million.

Directors Richard Marlborough, David Domingo and Colin Macvicar were charged last year with fraud offences and will next appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court for a mention of their cases on December 9.

Bettles, who started his career at Hall Chadwick in 1995 and joined Worrells in 2004, did not respond to a call and email seeking comment yesterday.

SELL OFF

Domino’s boss Don Meij has continued his semi-regular selldown of stock in the pizza giant to help meet some pretty onerous tax obligations.

It emerged this week that Meij had offloaded 300,000 shares for $15.3 million, with just a tad over $3 million of that getting diverted to the tax man.

Dominos Pizza CEO Don Meij

But his 2.1 per cent stake in the company (1.8 million shares) has remained unchanged since he also exercised 300,000 share options for $12.2 million.

Meij last dumped stock in September.

WIND UP BID

Operators of a Cairns hotel head to the Supreme Court in Brisbane on Thursday in a bid to wind up a troubled former Aboriginal charity.

The Novotel Cairns Oasis Resort and its parent company, AAPC Properties, want liquidators appointed over the Gulf Aboriginal Development Company.

Established in 1997, the Burketown-based GADC acted as a clearing house to receive money from the Century Zinc Mine project, about 250km northwest of Mount Isa, and then distribute those funds to various native title groups.

But the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission revoked its charity registration in early 2017 and even made the action retrospectively applicable from July 2013.

New Century Resources helped resurrect the zinc mine near Lawn Hill last year and, for its troubles, won a three-year deferment of royalties payable to the State Government.

It acquired the mine in 2017 from previous owners MMG, which had shut down the operation the previous year.

City Beat left numerous messages for Novotel manager Scott Grant in an effort to get a bit more info but he did not respond. Neither did a spin doctor for AAPC.

A request for comment from the GADC also went unanswered and the organisation has not filed a defence in the court case.

GAS DEAL

A Brisbane-based junior explorer has struck a second natural gas deal to benefit Townsville in as many months.

Blue Energy revealed on Wednesday that it had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to supply gas to Queensland Pacific Metals, which hopes to develop a $450 million battery metals refinery outside of Townsville.

QPM, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pure Minerals Limited, has proposed construction of a nickel sulfate and cobalt sulfate plant about 40km west of the city.

Blue Energy chairman John Ellice-Flint. Photo: Tom Huntley

If approved, the Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub would create 1000 jobs during construction in 2021 and just over 100 full-time position after that.

The agreement comes after Blue, chaired by former Santos boss John Ellice-Flint, revealed last month that it had inked an agreement with two entities controlled by Palisade Investment Partners, which owns and operates the North Queensland Gas Pipeline.