NATHAN Tinkler and his sister Donna Dennis could be called to give evidence in a public examination by Newcastle Jets liquidator James Shaw.
Mr Shaw is the liquidator of Newcastle Jets Football Operations Pty Ltd (in liquidation), the company that ran the club before Football Federation Australia took over the licence in May 2015.
In a recent report to creditors, Mr Shaw said he believed the company had been trading insolvently from as early as October 10, 2014, and had incurred debts of about $2.3 million since that date.
Mr Shaw said he had identified $970,000 in “unfair preferential payments” by the company in the six months before it went into liquidation, and had recovered $296,000 of that amount.
He said employees had been owed more than $800,000 in wages and entitlements and more than $740,000 in superannuation, to a total of $1.56 million.
Employees who lodged claims with the federal government’s Fair Entitlement Guarantee Scheme had received more than $317,000, and other claims were still being processed.
Mr Shaw said he had to consider a director’s “personal financial position and their capacity to pay” before deciding whether it was commercially viable to pursue anyone for insolvent trading.
“The director, Donna Dennis, has provided a statement of her personal assets and liabilities and indicates that she would not have the financial capacity to repay any claim made,” Mr Shaw said in his report.
Corporate records show Mr Tinkler ceased to be a Jets director in October 2011 but the club continued to operate from Tinkler Group addresses and was controlled by Tinkler Group companies.
See your ad here
Mr Shaw’s report said Ms Dennis was the only person named as a Jets director at the time it went under. Even so, Mr Tinkler could still be regarded as a director under the Corporations Act even if he was not “formally appointed” but was someone “who acts in that role or on whose instructions or wishes the directors of the company are accustomed to act”.
“My investigations and observations of the company’s affairs indicate that Mr Nathan Tinkler may be a shadow or de facto director of the company,” Mr Shaw said.
He said corporations law allowed a shadow director to be held “personally liable for debts incurred at a time when the company was proven to be insolvent”.
Mr Shaw said financial assistance was potentially available if authorities agreed that an examination of Mr Tinkler was in the public interest. He should know in the next few weeks whether to proceed with attempts to examine Mr Tinkler.
Reply With Quote