It is interesting to note that MFS in its new name of Octaviar in its many and varied forms is being wound up. (Australian 18 July 2008).
There is much speculation and indeed sufficient proof which, the courts may not have had access to or inquired sufficiently enough into, to be able to establish that MFS too was insolvent at some previous stage before the troubles of the company became all too apparent earlier this year. That discovery was not from want of concealment of the truth.
Babcock and Brown by definition of section 95A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cwth) was from evidence that appears now to be more readily available, possibly insolvent in 2007 and perhaps even earlier.
It is not just Frank Lowy and his sons that now have to fear the outings of the rich and famous and the powerful who Robin Hood in reverse. And long may the list grow.
Paul Keating perhaps was not wrong when he once blurted out in the heat of a parliamentary debate that a certain Australian bank was insolvent.
What people fail to understand or ignore is the very higly geared nature of financial institutions that on occassion render vulnerable to this definition under section 95A of the Corporations Act for which the courts have demonstrated a total disregard and a level of incompetence in dealing with. The reasons that I suspect this happens relate to the inability of lawyers and judges to understand what really constitutes insolvent trading, insolvency and the effects of their ignorance on these events when brought to their attention.
Strangely enough, in Queensland where this abject level of ignorance is most prominent, the Hon. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd seeks to make a virtue of appointing and now nominating judges to the High Court of Australia. A parochial exercise in elevating ignorance into a virtue.
