[Cliff Beer]

That's a real shame Ron. I can tell you that it's very uncommon for unsecured creditors to recover anything at all from the bankruptcy estate. Typically, what little there is in asset value is completely consumed and distributed by/to the secured creditors - even they get partial recoveries. Unfortunately, depositors are/were unsecured creditors. Australia is similar to the US in that bankrupt debtors will get a discharge from all (secured and unsecured) but typically not from debts owed (read, taxes) to the government. In other words, tax debts, and other governmental obligations, are typically non-dischargeable. The preferential transfer you mention here is interesting because, as you may know, the bankruptcy trustee will try to reach out and recover such transfers (by definition a preferential transfer is a transfer of the estate's wealth prior to filing for protection which is not in accordance with the creditor priority hierarchy), however, it is uncommon to deem a transfer to a governmental agency (such as the taxing authority) as preferential precisely because debts owed to the government are generally non-dischargeable. I would guage that it would be very, very difficult for the trustee to prevail for this reason, so, in deciding whether to authorize the attorney to attempt to go after it I would estimate the costs of doing so to far exceed the probability weighted chance of recovery of the pref transfer.

Bankruptcy law is complicated no doubt but there really is some logic and reason to the madness. It is, however, never satisfying to the creditors (particularly the unsecured creditors) because at the root of it all there simply aren't enough chairs to go around when the music stops (due to the pre-filing reckless behaviour of the debtor in bankruptcy who set all the mess in motion in the first place).