VIC director disqualified by ASIC

A Victoria director has been disqualified from managing corporations for three-and-a-half years due to her involvement in the failure of three companies, ASIC has reported.

Athina Bragiannis, also known as Tina Bragiannis, of Preston, VIC was the director of holding entity Rococo Hawthorn No 1 as well as of property development firms Cleveland Lodge Developments and Bellbird Estate Holdings from Feb. 10, 2012, to February 2018. These three companies entered liquidation between Oct. 4, 2017 and Feb. 9, 2018.

Bragiannis has been disqualified from managing corporations until Feb. 11, 2027, after ASIC investigations found that she acted improperly and failed to meet her obligations as a director.

According to the regulator, Bragiannis:

• enforced finance deals on behalf of Cleveland Lodge Developments to further the interests of another company were she was also the sole director and shareholder
• enabled payments to be made from Cleveland Lodge Developments’ bank account to two companies where she was also the sole director and shareholder for goods and services that were not supplied to Cleveland Lodge Developments
• failed to ensure that enough funds were put aside from the sale of property for a GST liability owing by Cleveland Lodge Developments to the Australian Taxation Office and to ensure that Cleveland Lodge Developments paid that liability
• failed to ensure that Cleveland Lodge Developments and Rococo Hawthorn No 1 kept written financial records as legally required
• failed to prevent Cleveland Lodge Developments from incurring debts when it was reasonable to suspect that the company was insolvent
• failed to ensure Rococo Hawthorn No 1 and Cleveland Lodge Developments complied with their statutory lodgment obligations to the ATO
• relied upon others to run the business and financial affairs of Cleveland Lodge Developments without adequate oversight

“At the time of ASIC’s decision, the three companies owed a combined total of $8,684,516.52 to unsecured creditors, including $7,902,469.35 to the ATO,” ASIC said.

In handing down the decision, the corporate watchdog relied on supplementary reports filed by Cleveland Lodge Development’s former liquidator Richard Rohrt of Kennedy Ryan Advisory and its current liquidator, Andrew MacNeill of SMB Advisory, and Rococo Hawthorn No 1’s liquidator, Rohrt.

To assist Rohrt and Mr MacNeill to prepare their reports for Cleveland Lodge Developments, ASIC granted an application for funding from the Assetless Administration Fund.  

Bragiannis has the right to seek a review of ASIC’s decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, the regulator said in a statement.