Mick, what is your background? I’m not disagreeing with your posts. I understand the invidious position, etc. However once Bain understood what Deloitteses had done, well, they could screw them down to nothing because Deloitte made an irrevocable decision to sell the business as a going concern and Bain was the only buyer who I think could have covered Deloittes backside. I’m sure you are right about the cash position.
To put that another way, Deloitte made a breathtaking irrevocable decision once it decided to burn through the provisions for employee entitlements. I would have to ask, if the Directors were trading while insolvent if they did this? The answer would be yes. But when the Administrator does it? I would have thought the answer is also “yes”. However on a technicality, the Administrator gets away with something that would have seen the Directors perhaps jailed.
Deloitte seems to have made “one last throw of the dice” using money that should have been used to cover employee entitlements in a liquidation. You can argue that this was in the best interests of the creditors - probably. However was it in the best interest of the employees? If Bain didn’t buy, then no.
What Deloitte may have done is loosely the equivalent to the crooked bank manager who has stolen a million from his employer and lost it gambling. He steals another million, bets double or nothing, and wins. He puts the money back. Has a crime still been committed if he is discovered? Not that Deloitte is crooked of course.
However I am not a lawyer and I’m not alleging Deloitte did anything illegal.
Last edited by Sunfish; 28th Aug 2020 at 11:18.