Stephen Bizzell advisory business in tax dispute
March 11, 2016 7:28pm
Liam WalshThe Courier-Mail
Stephen Bizzell made a fortune in the CSG boom and now sits on Queensland Treasury Corporation board.
AN ENTREPRENEUR who made a fortune from coal-seam gas and now sits on one of the State Government’s top finance boards is facing corporate trouble.
The Australian Taxation Office is pursuing CSG multi-millionaire Stephen Bizzell’s own private corporate advisory business for $918,000.
At the same time, voluntary administrators are investigating whether stockmarket listed Titan Energy Services, where Mr Bizzell was a director, might have traded while insolvent.
Mr Bizzell, 48, said a plan was afoot to repay the ATO and he rejected the insolvent trading claim.
He’s a director on government financial agency Queensland Treasury Corporation, and stockmarket listed entities including Armour Energy.
Mr Bizzell, a sports fan, co-founded CSG outfit Arrow Energy, earning an estimated $18 million when Shell bought it in 2010.
The ATO in December filed a winding up action against Bizzell Capital for $918,000, saying it had submitted a demand for payment in September over taxes.
Mr Bizzell, in a later affidavit, countered that his company was solvent. The ATO had reached an agreement to allow his company to sell stocks in various ASX-listed companies, which were subject to sale restrictions due to expire in mid-March, he said. The plan was to repay $500,000 upfront in April and then $100,000 payments in monthly instalments.
He told The Courier-Mail private family matters had led to some tax affairs not being kept up to date.
The ATO was joined in its case by Dart Energy – where Mr Bizzell was once a director – seeking $343,000 in office costs linked to Bizzell Capital. Dart’s affidavit was sworn by Mr Bizzell’s long-term business partner Shaun Scott.
Mr Bizzell’s affidavit said Bizzell Capital and Dart had since reached a payment agreement, and Dart would drop its case. The wind-up action is not against Mr Bizzell personally, and stockmarket and property searches indicate he and family interests have more than $10 million in assets.
Mr Bizzell and Mr Scott were also directors on Titan Energy Services, which provided services such as accommodation camps. It fell into voluntary administration in December.
A subsequent creditors’ report from Joanne Dunn and Stefan Dopking of administrators FTI Consulting theorised Titan group might have been insolvent around July last year. They cited factors including that Titan had stopped reporting PAYG to the ATO from July last year.
The administrators stressed this was a preliminary opinion, and Mr Bizzell said it was wrong. “Right up until the day we appointed administrators, there were a number of refinancing alternatives that were being pursued that had a reasonable likelihood of success,” he told The Courier-Mail.
Creditors’ meeting minutes also noted Titan executives “disagree with the (alleged) insolvency date”. Their disagreement centred on when the ATO debt arose.
The creditors’ report states only $250,000 in debt was incurred after July 2015.
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