To examine former directors and managers.
Ferrier Hodgson partner James Stewart (pictured) has notified Dick Smith’s creditors that 10 former directors and managers will be examined in the NSW Supreme Court from September 5 2016.
These include former CEO Nick Abboud, former chairman Rob Murray, company secretary David Cooke, director of commercial property, procurement and supply chain, John Skellern, non-executive directors Lorna Raine, Michael Potts, Robert Ishak and Jamie Tomlinson, and Phil Cave and Bill Wavish, of Dick Smith’s former private equity owner, Anchorage Capital Partners.
Stewart told creditors he would be using the cross-examination powers under sections 586A and 597B of the Corporations Act to examine the former directors and employees.
He will be trying to understand what the board did and did not know about the affairs of the company, and find out what management told the board in the lead up to the collapse.
The answers given by those called to appear in court may be used to determine further legal remedies available to the receiver including the possibility of gathering evidence for the bringing of criminal charge in connection with the company’s affairs.
Administrator McGrathNichol is expected to release its report on Dick Smith this week.