Recent Info from Old Roaring Forties Demise

[Ron Earp]

As many of you know, none of the people owed money from the over half million USD in car deposits to the old Roaring Forties company have ever recovered any of their money. Auditors took control of the company when it went into liquidation, as detailed on many other threads, but we've had little information about the process or outcome. It was learned some time ago that Robert Logan is not being investigated further and is free from obligation.

I did get a piece of information from an attorney that spoke with the liquidators office in response to a question that one of the affected Roaring Forties deposit losers asked.
I quote from a few days ago:
The liquidator is pursuing a court action against the tax office for a preference payment of about $54,000.
A report to creditors will be forthcoming shortly as will the holding of an AGM. They do not expect to declare a dividend to creditors until such time as they know the outcome of the ATO litigation. They have already recovered about $60,000.00.

As to the additional creditors report it showed up a few days ago. It asked for the creditors to vote to extend a budget for the attorneys to continue collection. In other words, authorize the attorney to spend more of the recovered money to continue collection. It ended with something to the effect that if the vote was not approved he could go to a higher office and get approval anyhow.

It has some other bits in there about stolen cars (the rumors were true) and so forth, but I’m about too tired to put the stuff on the forum. It is attached for those that wish to read it.

Payout, if there ever is one, is expected to be a few Australian cents on the dollar.

Over $500,000 USD in deposits gone and I never saw it mentioned in any of the popular replica car magazines. Interesting.

Best,
Ron

 

[Randy V]

The vast majority of all the news surrounding the Roaring Forties I have found - I have found in this forum...
Yes - I find it very odd that none of the rags picked it up or bothered to say anything about it..
Then again - if you go back through the history of kitcars and replicas, the failure of one of these companies is not only common - it's apparently expected...

 

[Charlie M]

I suppose news like the old RF demise can have a negative impact on the industry as a whole. That may be one reason the press hasn't touched it.

Charlie

 

[Howard Jones]

Ya, THINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dutton]

While I'd never personally endorse such a thing and most certainly wouldn't advise any of my fellow RF Mates to participate, one could imagine there might be some who'd donate their paltry settlement to one of the many IPTTK** social groups, who I'm sure would arrange for a personal counseling session with an un-named individual. Sort of like floral delivery with a twist...

T.


** iron-pipe-to-the-kneecaps

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

As to the additional creditors report it showed up a few days ago. It asked for the creditors to vote to extend a budget for the attorneys to continue collection. In other words, authorize the attorney to spend more of the recovered money to continue collection. It ended with something to the effect that if the vote was not approved he could go to a higher office and get approval anyhow.


Best,
Ron

Doncha just love lawyers? give them a free hand to spend as much of the recovered money they can.

 

[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).

 

[Gregg]

Hello There/CDB, are you really the return of Cliff Beer?? You failed to answer my last inquiry.