Ann: New Funding Agreement - Forge Group , page-20

The directors of FGE would have to be some of the most despicable dropkicks in Australian corporate history. Anyone debating whether they should join this class action should read this story about how the greedy ********* acted during the last few months of the company's history……

"ON a Friday night last December -- just weeks after revealing problems that would ultimately prove the company's downfall -- contractor Forge Group threw a lavish Christmas party for its staff.

According to a number of the 400 guests who attended the night, the Middle East-themed event was just one of several puzzling expenditures carried out in the group's final months. Former company insiders estimate the cost of the party was in the tens of thousands, a large amount at a time when the company was on its knees and supposed to be working to cut costs.

The spending did not end there. Between Forge disclosing issues at two of its power station contracts in November and its collapse last Tuesday, the company relocated its executive team from Perth to Sydney.

The exercise, according to those with knowledge of the situation, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Included in the relocation expenses, according to sources, was a 12-month lease paid upfront for an apartment for one of the executives.

Another executive was said to have been reimbursed a substantial five-figure sum for the stamp duty he paid on his new house in Sydney as part of his relocation package.

And the relocation of Forge executives back to Sydney came just over a year after Mr Simpson and a group of hand-picked executives were relocated from Sydney to Perth at considerable expense.

The relocation came despite the group opening its new office in West Perth in mid-2013 after an extensive fit-out complete with a huge chief executive's office and costly video-conferencing systems.

And despite Forge's ultimately fatal financial issues becoming more and more apparent, Forge insiders say the company's executives never lost their appetite for high-end travel.Forge executives continued to enjoy business class and first class travel in the company's last months, despite public assurances from managing director David Simpson that the company was committed to carving millions of dollars out of its cost base.

The perceived extravagances of Forge management has only added to the anger being felt by many of the 1400 employees who lost their jobs this week after the company's collapse."

read more here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/sinking-forge-splurged-on-execs/story-e6frg9df-1226827684754#