Hi Alterior, I have to say that replying to your 2012 post about Ed Eshuys in 2019 feels like a time warp.
Any thoughts about the former Apex directors being sued for $74m? Seems like a big number if it's a potential penalty for gross insolvent trading. Misappropriated funds? Other reasons? Who knows? Maybe Ed Eshuys good friend 'Diamond Joe' taught him a few things...
Article from The Australian (03/06/19): Directors of failed Apex chased for $74m losses
Ed Eshuys is one of three former directors of failed WA gold miner Apex Minerals who is being sued for damages over the company’s collapse. The ex-directors of failed gold miner Apex Minerals, including ex-St Barbara boss Ed Eshuys, have been hit with a $74 million damages suit after the miner’s liquidators alleged the company was trading while insolvent.
According to an application lodged with the Federal Court in Western Australia recently, Mr Eshuys, fellow WA mining veteran Kim Robinson and resources executive Brice Mutton are each being pursued for millions of dollars in damages stemming from Apex’s collapse in July 2013.
The claim has been lodged by Bryan Hughes of Pitcher Partners, who are acting as Apex’s liquidators. It is understood the three named defendants held directors’ insurance, which could be called upon in the event the claim is successful.
Mr Hughes first tipped the potential pursuit of Apex’s former directors in 2015, flagging at the time that Apex was “experiencing significant, ongoing difficulty in paying its debts as and when they fell due since at least October 2011”, but the scale of the claim has not been public up until now.
“The application relates to an insolvent trading claim against various directors of Apex Minerals and its subsidiary, Apex Gold,” the application says.
According to the document, the liquidators are seeking more than $37m from Mr Eshuys, more than $6m from Mr Robinson and almost $31m from Mr Mutton, as well as interest and costs.
The liquidators secured an agreement with litigation funder IMF Bentham in 2015 to fund the case. It is uncommon for claims directly against a collapsed company’s directors to make it this far or for a claim to be this large, given the difficulties of establishing an insolvent trading claim, the cost of such cases, and the challenges of recovering damages in the event of a successful case.
Mr Eshuys and Mr Robinson are well-known in the mining community.
Mr Eshuys was the man who led the exploration efforts of Joseph Gutnick’s Great Central Mines, making a series of discoveries at the time, and was the managing director of mid-tier gold miner St Barbara from 2004 to 2009. He took the helm of Apex in 2012, but it fell over just over a year later amid a drop in gold prices.
Today, Mr Eshuys is the executive chairman of ASX-listed DGO Gold, which is exploring for gold in WA’s eastern goldfields.
Mr Robinson, meanwhile, was most notably the founder and chairman of Kagara, a zinc miner that at one point was worth more than $1 billion but collapsed into administration in 2012. He now runs the successful Talisman winery in WA’s southwest.
Mr Hughes and Mr Mutton declined to comment, while Mr Eshuys had not responded to a request for comment at the time of going to press.
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