The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has successfully sought an order from the Federal Court of Australia in Western Australia to appoint receivers to seize individual assets owned in Australia and overseas by Westpoint directors.
Yesterday, Justice French ordered that until October 20, 2006, Oren Zohar, Brian McMaster and Mark Korda of KordaMentha Chartered Accountants, be appointed as individual receivers to all individual properties owned by Norm Carey, Graeme Rundle, Richard Beck and John Dixon.
The individual receivers will have the power to enter into possession and take control of the individual properties. However, the Court has not extended the powers to sell, let or encumber the property without prior leave of the Court or the consent of the defendant whose property it is.
In addition, the Court has made a travel restraint order on Carey, Rundle, Beck and Dixon.
The four directors will be required to hand in their passports to the Court by April 26, and are restrained from coming within 100 metres of an Australian point of overseas departure.
Meanwhile, the Court has ordered KordaMentha be appointed as corporate receivers to corporate properties owned by Richstar Enterprises Pty Ltd, Westpoint Realty Pty Ltd and Redchime Pty Ltd.
The corporate receivers will have the power to appoint themselves as signatory to all bank accounts of three companies.
While the orders does not prevent the companies from continuing to operate in the ordinary course of its business, they must obtain the corporate receivers’ consent to any transaction in excess of $5,000or a series of transactions, in excess of $5,000 within any seven day period.
All defendants need to provide ASIC and the receivers with an affidavit setting out the name and address of all bank accounts and the balance in those accounts, a statement of their property including the location of the property and an inventory of their assets and liabilities.
In addition to a receiver and manager been appointed to Bowesco Pty Ltd, Justice French also ordered a mareva injunction against the company, which prevents it until October 20, 2006 selling, charging, mortgaging any assets.
Justice French said in his opinion, the misconduct indicated by the evidence is wideranging and serious.
“Although the appointment of receivers is a drastic step, I am satisfied that in the serious circumstances of this case, it is justified. I do not think that the necessary protection can be achieved by way of freezing orders or the acceptance of undertakings,” Justice French added.
ASIC’s executive director of enforcement Jan Redfern said the Court order shows the strength of concern in Westpoint directors’ dissipating assets.
Redfern added ASIC now has six months to finalise and complete its investigations, which at the end of the investigations, ASIC can look into criminal prosecutions.
The Court adjourned the proceeding until October 03, 2006 and ordered the defendants to pay ASIC’s costs.
In other news, KordaMentha has put nine Westpoint properties on the market.
The properties are located in Warwick, north of Perth. The properties will be sold separately at auction next month.
The latest sale is one of the many properties on the market, the receivers are also selling the Paragon building, the Huntingdale Village Shopping Centre and the former Emu Brewery site in Perth.
Other properties are expected to come onto the market, including residential apartments in Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane.
By Nelson Yap
