Bell talks turn into right ding dong
Peace talks to resolve an impasse over the carve-up of the $1.7 billion Bell litigation proceeds are set to collapse amid a backlash against State Government plans to seize control of the loot.
It is understood that veteran Perth liquidator Garry Trevor is considering pulling out of the mediation scheduled for Tuesday in Singapore involving players including the State Government-controlled Insurance Commission of WA and the tax office. A syndicate led by Perth-based litigation funder Hugh McLernon is understood to have already withdrawn.
The laws, tabled by Treasurer Mike Nahan on Tuesday, include penalties of up to five years jail, or a $200,000 fine, to anyone who plans, proposes or acts directly or indirectly to defeat or impede the objectives of the Bill. Jail can apply to actions carried out before or after the laws take effect.
The laws legally cremate all 32 WA Bell companies. Mr Trevor will survive as liquidator of Bell Group’s Netherlands Antilles-registered debt raising arm Bell Group NV.
The Government has swooped amid fears that legal rows over the bounty could drag out for more than a decade and ICWA could be left empty-handed after spending $200 million pursuing banks who ripped money out of Bell companies when the group collapsed in 1991.
However, the proposed laws offered legislative force to next week’s mediation conference. The laws require the administrator to have regard to any agreements “between any of the creditors” that might be struck after Tuesday of this week.
State solicitor Paul Evans wrote to lawyers for both Mr McLernon’s syndicate and Bell Group NV urging them to attend next week’s mediation, and pointing out that agreements that the administrator must consider did not have to be “between all the creditors”.
