Creditors win Rosewall order
Liquidators of failed stockbroker BBY have had a small win in the NSW Supreme Court.
Liquidators of failed stockbroker BBY have had a small win in the NSW Supreme Court over preferential payments made to the company’s former executive chairman Glenn Rosewall.
The question, though, is whether liquidator KPMG and ultimately BBY creditors will ever see the funds following Mr Rosewall’s bankruptcy filing last month.
Orders were made yesterday by judge Kelly Rees that BBY had been insolvent from January 2014 — ahead of its collapse in 2015 — and that an entity associated to Mr Rosewall repay $2.5 million plus interest to the liquidators.
The payment of $2.5m was declared by the court as a voidable transaction. KPMG successfully argued that it should not have been repaid to Mr Rosewall ahead of the company’s demise.
BBY collapsed in 2015, leaving a $20m shortfall in client accounts and a tangled web of questionable corporate transactions.
A court judgment may be made public in coming days.
Mr Rosewall was not able to comment when contacted by The Australian yesterday.
After yesterday’s court proceedings, KPMG is expected to issue a demand for payment and also has the option of seeking to wind up the entity in question, GARF, a trustee of the Glenn Rosewall family trust and superannuation fund.
In March, Mr Rosewall made a filing for bankruptcy.
KPMG also wants to retrieve funds from an entity associated with Glenn’s father, tennis great Ken Rosewall. The court next lists that matter for May 27.
KPMG is arguing that a $3.1m loan repayment to that entity was voidable because it reflected preferential treatment.
Ken Rosewall was a director of BBY alongside his son and lawyer David Perkins.
Earlier KPMG reports showed that when a $192m trade in Aquila shares executed by BBY went awry in 2014, the firm went into overdrive to meet an ASX call for more capital.
KPMG has previously claimed clients’ accounts were used along with company money to meet the obligation.
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