Liquidator sheds light on collapse of David Collard’s Sanitex

The pain caused by the collapse of a controversial Geelong entrepreneur’s startup empire has been laid bare in a scathing new report.

David Collard at Scale Facilitation’s office at the top of New York’s One World Trade Center. Picture: Abby Holden

Exclusive: The business at the centre of an Australian entrepreneur’s start-up empire claimed to have $1.2 billion in assets when it collapsed – but liquidators have not been able to find a cent to help dozens of unpaid staff.

According to internal accounts, David Collard’s Sanitex also claimed to have raked in a $1bn profit in the last financial year, having generated just $10m over the three years before that.

Worrells liquidator Scott Anderson, who was appointed in November when the Victorian Supreme Court wound up the company, said Sanitex’s records were “not a true and correct reflection” of its financial position and that Mr Collard had not responded to his requests for further information.

The company owes $23m, including a $9.5m penalty for intentionally disregarding Australian tax laws, and $4.1m in unpaid wages and superannuation shared among 68 staff.

David Collard in a helicopter as he planned a battery gigafactory near Geelong. Picture: Supplied

In a scathing report to creditors, Mr Anderson said there was no money in Sanitex’s Australian bank accounts, as he questioned whether anything could be recovered from the $1.2bn supposedly tied up in Mr Collard’s broader Scale Facilitation empire.

It launched in a blaze of glory in New York City in December 2022, with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton effusively backing Mr Collard’s plan to help Australian businesses scale up and succeed in the United States.

But within six months, staff in both countries complained of unpaid wages, before the Australian Federal Police raided the company’s Victorian office as part of their inquiries into tax fraud allegations.

David Collard with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. Picture: Supplied

Mr Collard and his businesses have denied the allegations. An ongoing investigation by this masthead found Australia’s financial crime taskforce was looking at whether $76m was obtained from the tax office by filing allegedly fraudulent business activity statements.

Mr Anderson, in his report, said the AFP raid was connected to an Australian Taxation Office audit of research and development tax refunds claimed by Scale’s network of entities.

He said the ATO determined a $12m refund was improper because the companies failed to demonstrate that they had spent the R&D money which they claimed as a deduction. Mr Anderson added that Mr Collard “disputes the ATO position”.

Sanitex directors James Fatone and David Collard. Picture: Supplied

Mr Collard, in a report he filed to Worrells as a director, acknowledged Sanitex owed $2.2m to staff, including $131,652 to his fellow director and friend James Fatone, and $315,829 to Rob Fitzpatrick who was leading a project to build a battery gigafactory near Geelong.

Other debts included $1m to the company’s Geelong landlord, $16,500 to the Give Where You Live charity, $3498 to AFL Barwon, and $376,720 to PwC, the corporate giant where Mr Collard had boasted of being the youngest partner in its New York office.

Unpaid employees should soon receive payouts through the federal government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme.

Mr Anderson blasted Sanitex’s failure to maintain proper records and threatened to refer Mr Collard to the corporate watchdog if he failed to provide more information.

The liquidator said “significant further investigations are warranted” – including into whether the company was trading while insolvent – and suggested he could hold a powerful public examination that would require Mr Collard and Mr Fatone to give evidence under oath.

The revelations came as Mr Collard was due to face court in New York over an alleged assault last year. He has pleaded not guilty.