ASIC has accepted voluntary undertakings (VUs) from three Melbourne-based registered liquidators, Hamish MacKinnon, Keith Sutherland and Brendan Marchesi of the specialist insolvency firm, Bent & Cougle. 

ASIC identified non-compliance with statutory lodgement and publication obligations - obligations designed to allow creditors and others to participate in the insolvency process. 

Responding to ASIC’s concerns, each liquidator and their advisers worked with ASIC to rectify the issue to the extent possible and pay all relevant fees required by the law.

The VUs aim to promote a stronger compliance culture across the firm and industry more broadly.  The key terms of the VUs, which took effect on 3 December 2015, are:

• all three liquidators agreed to implement firm-wide training, with an emphasis on promoting an improved compliance culture.
• Mr MacKinnon separately agreed not to accept any new appointments for a three-month period and engage an independent expert to review some external administrations to assess ongoing compliance.

ASIC Commissioner John Price said, ‘Lodging and publishing are important obligations for liquidators. These obligations provide transparency and information important to maintain trust and confidence regarding particular insolvencies and the profession more generally.'  

Background

On 29 November 2013, ASIC advised all registered liquidators of its project to assess compliance with reporting and publishing requirements.

The project's key objective is to further build confidence in the insolvency market and our regulation of it through a measurable increase in compliance. Our experience is that non-compliance with simple obligations can reflect more serious problems with insolvency practices.

ASIC's recent action arising from this project includes the cancelling the registration of two registered liquidators, Christopher John McCroary and Christopher James Fawcett (refer: 15-224MR).

ASIC's project is ongoing.