TechDay and NetGuide publisher settles with liquidators, creditors left $2m short
Sean Mitchell was accused of trading recklessly by a Deloitte liquidator.
After several years of legal wrangling, NetGuide and TechDay publisher Sean Mitchell has settled with the liquidators of his company for $165,000.
But the settlement only covered the legal fees used to pursue him and creditors have been left short more than $2 million.
Mr Mitchell, whose company Action Media went into voluntary liquidation in May 2010, paid a $165,000 settlement to liquidator Henry Levin of Deloitte, according to the latest liquidator’s report. A $6600 refund of security costs was also paid.
This covered $150,000 in legal fees and net GST of $22,000.
Mr Levin didn’t wish to comment when contacted by NBR and Mr Mitchell didn't return calls.
The same report says preferential creditors were owed $374,000 and unsecured creditors $1.7 million. Inland Revenue was the largest creditor.
The liquidator says investigations have been finalised and will complete the liquidation “shortly.”
A month before Action Media went under, Mr Mitchell set up a phoenix company, TechDay Ltd, and transferred its publications – NetGuide, Techday and IT Brief, Telco Review and ChannelLife – to it.
The liquidator pursued a case against Mr Mitchell in 2014, alleging he knew the magazine company should have been wound up three years earlier and, as a result, incurred significant tax arrears, further debts and traded recklessly.
A trust operated by law firm Farry & Co owns Action Media and TechDay Limited and was named the second defendant.
But Mr Mitchell denied this and his lawyer described the battle as being between “David and Goliath,” with the liquidators hiding important information for his client’s defence, as reported by NBR in November 2015.
The liquidators argued all relevant files had been provided and denied any bullying.
A January 2016 High Court judgment also revealed the registrar of companies initially opposed Mr Mitchell continuing as a director of TechDay, with the support of the IRD but the registrar later allowed him to.
Read the liquidator’s report here.
Campbell Gibson
Tue, 30 May 2017
Tue, 30 May 2017
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TechDay and NetGuide publisher settles with liquidators, creditors left $2m short
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