Whenever you might think that your situation with NXR is as bad as it can get, spare a thought for the folks with their money stuck in Condor Blanco.
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If the executives of listed mining company Condor Blanco Mines wanted to get in touch with their newest board member seven days a week they knew where to find the self-confessed ice user — at the bar of the Empire Hotel in Sydney’s Kings Cross, knocking back schooners.
A move by aggrieved shareholders to have the recent administration of the company deemed invalid has teased out yet more sleaze connected to the nation’s most dysfunctional ASX-listed company.
The NSW Supreme Court on Thursday and Friday last week heard allegations Condor Blanco founder and chief Glen Darby — jailed the week before for three and a half years over an unrelated rape conviction — appointed his Kings Cross drinking buddy and temporary flatmate Timothy Stops to the board to facilitate the appointment of a friendly administrator.
Mr Stops, an unemployed conveyancing lawyer, had been living in Darby’s Potts Point apartment for the two weeks before he signed on as Condor Blanco director.
“Glen was desperate,” Mr Stops told the court of his appointment.
“All I was offering is expertise in handling the media.”
Darby was desperate because his sister Lia Darby and his ex-girlfriend Michelle Feruglio had recently resigned from the Condor Blanco board, leaving himself as the company’s sole director.
Under corporations law a listed company must have at least two directors residing in Australia.
Condor Blanco, a minerals explorations company which has said it at one stage had tenements in South America and Turkey, has lost the $22 million-plus it has raised from investors since Mr Darby founded the company in 2010.
Darby has a lengthy criminal rap sheet which includes resisting police, drugs charges, assault, disqualified driving and several high-range drink driving convictions.
He has also been the subject of apprehended violence orders taken out by two women.
In recent months three aggrieved Condor Blanco shareholders, including Joshua Farquhar, have led a move to oust the Condor Blanco board, including Darby.
An extraordinary meeting to vote on the matter was called for 11am on Tuesday, July 6, but the night before — in line with an alleged earlier threat to do so — Darby appointed administrator Domenic Calabretta of firm Mackay Goodwin.
That administration occurred nine days after Mr Stops was appointed board member.
For the administration to be valid it needed to be signed by both directors, including Mr Stops.
The court heard that administrator appointment occurred at about 5pm the night before the meeting, at the Empire Hotel, “at a standing table near the pokies”.
Mr Stops had earlier provided the court with sworn affidavits he never signed the form appointing the administrator — or in fact had ever met Mr Calabretta — but under cross examination he said it was possible he had in fact done so and had forgotten on account of his “very poor” memory.
The shareholders, including Mr Farquhar, allege Darby had called in the administrators to prevent them gaining control of the company the following day, as proxies received early by post overwhelmingly indicated the board would be ousted.
They allege Darby pressured investors and others to make false or inflated creditor’s claims so he could regain control of the company by presenting the administrator with a plan for rejuvenation known as a Deed of Company Arrangement or DOCA.
Despite the administration the vote went ahead. Darby was removed from the company and Mr Farquhar and fellow shareholders Sarah Miles and Jay Stephenson were voted in. It is those three directors, on behalf of Condor Blanco, who have applied to the NSW Supreme Court claiming the method of Mr Calabretta’s appointment was invalid, or if it was valid, Condor should not have been wound up because it was not insolvent.
Mr Calabretta disputes his appointment was invalid and is seeking to remain as administrator of Condor Blanco, which he believes is insolvent, based on his preliminary investigations.
Under cross examination, Mr Stops told the court his uncertainty regarding whether or not he had signed the form to place Condor Blanco in administration was heightened because he had been unwell at the time.
Mr Stops had spent the previous Friday night in hospital after a collapsing during a night drinking and his memory, which was always poor, had worsened. Mr Stops told the court he was a user of the drug ice, and his doctors had told him he was an alcoholic, which “surprised” him, though he was unsure whether these issues contributed to his memory condition.
Mr Calabretta gave sworn evidence Mr Stops had signed the appointment of administrator document because he had attended the Empire Hotel when it was signed.
When asked whether he thought the hotel was “an appropriate place for the board meeting of a publicly listed company”, Mr Calabretta told the court he did not.
“I did feel it was not an appropriate place, yes,” Mr Calabretta said.
However, under-cross examination he rejected suggestions the hotel was a topless bar.
“No, they didn’t have topless waitresses there,” he said.
“They had pokies and a TAB. I did not see any naked females there.”
Mr Stops had a bruise on his eye from the fall three nights earlier and “didn’t look real flash”, the court heard.
“He didn’t look like someone I’d want to hang out with, no,” Mr Calabretta told the court.
The court heard Darby knew he could find Mr Stops at the Empire Hotel because Mr Stops frequented the pub every day from about 2pm.
“Weekdays or weekends?” Mr Stops was asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
Mr Stops said Condor Blanco had been his first appointment as a company director.
“All I could offer was advice about how to handle The Australian newspaper which, to me, was the cause of the company’s problems, because (Mr Darby’s) third (high-range drink driving) charge had been the result of another article slamming Mr Darby and his conduct of the company,” Mr Stops told the court.
“(I said to) Glen ‘your problem is you’ve got all these charges that are affecting you and the company that aren’t newsworthy and I know how to handle the media’.
“You attack The Australian back,” he said.
Darby’s sister Lia and her husband Andrew Mortimer have separately presided over two failed ASX-listed mining exploration companies.
Those two companies and Condor Blanco have collectively wiped out more than $75m of investor funds.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission appears to be taking a keen interest in Condor Blanco. On Thursday it had four observers present in court, including a member of its enforcement team.
A decision on the validity of the administrator’s appointment to Condor Blanco is expected to be delivered in coming weeks.
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