Unified Security Group guards to be paid out after deal with Daniel Andrews’ government

Hundreds of guards who worked for controversial Covid isolation hotel security firm Unified made claims for millions of dollars— now, a decision has been made on whether they’ll get their money.

The liquidator of Covid quarantine hotel security company Unified has revealed he will pay hundreds of its former guards their full entitlements in March, nearly two years after NSW Police shut down the controversial Sydney-based firm.

It’s understood about 210 ex-Unified workers who are foreign citizens will get more than $750,000 worth of leave and superannuation after creditors met at Parramatta on Thursday and accepted a multimillion-dollar settlement offer made by the Victorian government.

Following the meeting, Unified’s liquidator Trent McMillen of MaC Insolvency told The Daily Telegraph: “I am looking forward to paying out the priority employee creditors in full in March.”

About 300 other former Unified guards who are Australian have already been paid their outstanding entitlements, worth $2m, under the federal government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme.

The Commonwealth will now get that money back.

A Unified Security guard mans the entrance to the Adina quarantine hotel. Picture: Jonathan Ng

The Telegraph can reveal the Victorian government offered $4.25m to settle a $10m court claim brought by Unified over unpaid work at Melbourne’s ineffective quarantine hotels.

In a report to creditors ahead of Thursday’s meeting, Mr McMillen said he believed the deal was a “sound commercial compromise”, given the estimated $1m bill to run the case and the risk of it being unsuccessful.

Mr McMillen has already recouped the entire $1.6m the NSW government owed Unified for work at Sydney’s Covid isolation hotels.

At one point in 2020, Unified was earning more than $20m a month from coronavirus hotel security.

But it went out of business last year after NSW Police revoked its master licence.

At the time, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal was told the licence was pulled because police decided former owners David Millward and Luigi Trunzo were not “fit and proper” people to be “close” associates of Unified.

Former Unified Security major shareholder David Millward. Source: Facebook

Mr McMillen is asking creditors to consider funding a recovery claim against a company called USG Holdings, which has ties to Mr Trunzo and Mr Millward, who trained rugby league bad boy John Hopoate to the Australian heavyweight boxing title and provided security to the Manly Sea Eagles.

In his creditors report, Mr McMillen estimates $5.4m could be extracted from a USG claim.

His report says he is also preparing to take the Australian Taxation Office to court seeking $6.4m in allegedly unfair preferential payments.

If the claims are successful, he estimates unsecured creditors would get back the entire $20m they are owed.

Should none of the claims be pursued, he forecasts unsecured creditors would receive 22 cents in the dollar owed.

On Thursday Mr McMillen told The Telegraph no creditor had so far offered to bankroll recovery actions, adding he had other options such as litigation funding outfits.

The Telegraph made repeated attempts to contact Messrs Millward and Trunzo before publication.

No authority has taken any action against either man.

Originally published as Unified Security Group guards to be paid out after deal with Daniel Andrews’ government