No family bailout for Craig Bond
Craig Bond's trustee bankruptcy trustee has warned the former business high-flyer's family will not pull him out of a $5 million-plus debt hole.
Despite mother Eileen Bond paying out a $60,000 credit card debt and brother John providing a beachfront unit rent-free, trustee Daniel Juratowich said the family's support would not extend to forgiving debts owed to family trusts or paying out other debts.
Mr Juratowich said Mr Bond appeared to have access to cash and benefits, including travel and accommodation, provided by family members, but the extent to which the family could support him was not known.
The Melbourne-based insolvency accountant took on the job of examining and unravelling Mr Bond's affairs in June.
The businesssman's previous attempt to strike a compromise deal with creditors under Part X of the Bankruptcy Act was scuttled because of a Federal Court challenge by former partner Dianne Beaman.
Ms Beaman subsequently applied to the Federal Circuit Court to overturn the full-blown bankruptcy appointment. That case goes to court on March 9.
Mr Bond declared bankruptcy despite being the beneficiary of Bond family trusts, with significant assets in Australia and overseas, and having most of his debts being to Bond family trusts.
His biggest debt related to an acknowledgment he signed in 2011 that he owed $2.1 million, plus interest of more than $700,000, to a Bond family trust that had bought a Cottesloe house for the use of Ms Beaman and their two children.
His demise came despite being a high-flying businessman last decade, when he was at the centre of his father Alan's attempts to resurrect their family's international fortunes through resource deals in Africa.
Those deals came unstuck in the global financial crisis and he was left facing claims by Ms Beaman.
In his report to creditors, Mr Juratowich said about $5 million of Mr Bond's $5.5 million in disclosed debts were to related parties.
Ms Beaman has claimed to be owed much more than the $100,000 mooted by Mr Bond, while the tax office claim is believed to now exceed $300,000.
Mr Juratowich told creditors that Ms Beaman had alleged Mr Bond's disclosed debts to family trust companies were not due and payable, and therefore his insolvency position was not affected.
He said he would examine claims by Ms Beaman that Mr Bond had interests in a number of assets via family trusts and companies.
