IMO there may be grounds to include them in a claim but what of...

IMO there may be grounds to include them in a claim but what of their capacity to pay up? Sure they allegedly defrauded the company but no one is going to sue out of vengeance. You need a pool of funds from which to recover. If PET sued them they could end up spending money to prove their point but suffer the fate of Pyrrhus. So long as they were officers of the company within the meaning of that term in the Corps Act they could be pursued but it needs careful consideration 'cos nothing in the law is simple. I haven't dug that deep. Leave that to the lawyers.

I expect Banton Group will explore all of these options and pursue the best one if there is one to pursue. They act in the best interests of their client, and if that's a shareholder, then all the better.

Sadly the conduct of management is sheeted home to the board so that claim appears to be the low hanging fruit I reckon, and KPMG but if I was them I would fight tooth and nail as they were misled too. This is all just my opinion from having worked in the industry. I'm purely looking at this for an investment opportunity upon recommencement of trading.

If you have questions I would ask Banton Group - they have said they are looking at it.