Property
developer and serial bankrupt David Ian Henderson was discharged from his
second bankruptcy leaving unpaid personal debts exceeding one hundred million
dollars. He is prohibited from managing
any business until December 2022.
Common themes running through Mr
Henderson’s business behaviour justified restrictions on his business actvities,
Associate-judge Osborne ruled. This
included: giving personal guarantees not backed by any assets; avoiding tax;
diverting GST and PAYE deductions; failing to keep proper records; failing to
meet financial reporting requirements and stonewalling in the face of demands
from receivers and liquidators for documents and information.
His second bankruptcy started in
2010. Automatic discharge three years
later was blocked following objections by the Insolvency Service.
Under questioning from Insolvency Service,
Mr Henderson painted himself as a go-getter entrepreneur more interested in
getting things done than dealing with trifling administrative matters. Agreement could not be reached on the full
extent of Mr Henderson’s indebtedness. He
disputed Insolvency Service calculations and criticised its handling of
creditors’ claims. Judge Osborne said
the total of Mr Henderson’s debts fell somewhere between $100 million and $150
million.
The High Court was told of Mr Henderson presenting
inflated statements of personal net worth when signing multiple guarantees to
support his property developments then later denying liability when demand was
made. He expressed the view guarantees
were not so much binding obligations as unenforceable letters of comfort. For tax years 2001-2007, he filed tax returns
declaring no taxable income. Inland
Revenue reassessed his tax liability for this period at $2.2 million being
income tax of $813,800 plus penalties and use of money interest. Inland Revenue said interest free loans paid
to him from one of his companies were in fact income. Treating the income as loans amounted to tax
avoidance, it said. Inland Revenue also
claimed Mr Henderson was personally liable to make good diverted GST and PAYE
deductions totalling $1.86 million after adding in associated penalties.
Mr Henderson blamed his bankruptcy on the
2008 banking crisis and subsequent collapse of second-tier lenders funding his
property developments. The Insolvency
Service said Mr Henderson displays a high level of confidence in his own
business abilities, taking little or no responsibility for his insolvency with no
insight into the impact of his conduct.
Mr Henderson will be 67 when his business
prohibition expires in 2022.
Re
Henderson – High Court (9.12.16)
17.009