Hi looking for some advice on issuing a statutory demand against a pty ltd company.
Just a quick background. 50% shareholder and director in the company, 4yrs ago had a falling out with the other director who is also 50% shareholder. Stepped out of the business and offered to sell my share to him. He declined, changed the locks on the business, removed my listing as a director with ASIC, refused me any access to financial information of the company and tried to have me removed from accessing business bank account statements. Lots of back and forward over the next year and money spent with lawyers that ended up being just lots of letters.
Skip forward to 1yr ago and I get a email calling for a shareholder meeting to be held in 2 days time and limited copies of financials for the 2015, 2016, and 2017 financial years. I refused the shareholder meeting based on lack of notice and time to analyse the financials. He held the shareholder meeting anyway and sent me copies of the minutes.The financials did show an amount owed to me on a directors loan (lower than what it should have been but still there) so i followed up with a letter of demand for payment of money owed to me and raised a number of concerns about the accuracy of the financials. They simply didn't fit with the activities in the business bank account. The response I got was the financials were accurate and had been audited each year and in response to my letter of demand I was told I was owed no money and would have to prove anything I thought I was owed. He then opened a new business bank account with another bank that I can't gain access to track his activities.
Now 3 days ago I again receive notice of a shareholder meeting to be held tomorrow morning and copies of the 2018 financial statements. The debt owed to me is still there as a directors loan. I haven't at this stage responded to the call for a shareholder meeting but again not enough time to analyze the financials and simply can't make it anyway.
Is the existence of a debt in the financial statements of the company enough evidence that the debt exists?
The debt is made up of expenses I paid on behalf of the company at startup and is for wages that were recorded but weren't drawn on fully when the cash flow of the business didn't allow for it. Some of the expenses are nearly 6yrs old and most of the receipts etc were retained by the business when I left so while I can show credit card statements showing a lot of the expenses but not all and I don't have matching receipts for a lot of them.
The debt also will include some expenses paid on my wife's credit card and some wages owed to her for the same reason as me. Should I only claim for the amounts owed to me even though it is all recorded under the 1 debt owed to me as a directors loan? Also should I only attempt to claim for what I can prove or the full amount and can I keep the right to claim for the other amounts later.
I think ultimately the amount is probably not relevant. I doubt he will ever pay me any money, I just need to bring this to an end in the quickest and cheapest way possible (considering I'm already significantly out of pocket, can't afford more legal expenses, and not going to get any money back). From what i can see from the activities of the business he has gained financially a lot while effectively creating more and more debt for the company and making it insolvent. It simply just isn't right that he has been allowed to get away with this.
I just don't want to take action that I could lose on and empower him, or worse but responsible for having to pay his expenses.
Sorry about the long post just wanted to try and give enough info. Thanks in advance for any opinions or advice I can get.
Just a quick background. 50% shareholder and director in the company, 4yrs ago had a falling out with the other director who is also 50% shareholder. Stepped out of the business and offered to sell my share to him. He declined, changed the locks on the business, removed my listing as a director with ASIC, refused me any access to financial information of the company and tried to have me removed from accessing business bank account statements. Lots of back and forward over the next year and money spent with lawyers that ended up being just lots of letters.
Skip forward to 1yr ago and I get a email calling for a shareholder meeting to be held in 2 days time and limited copies of financials for the 2015, 2016, and 2017 financial years. I refused the shareholder meeting based on lack of notice and time to analyse the financials. He held the shareholder meeting anyway and sent me copies of the minutes.The financials did show an amount owed to me on a directors loan (lower than what it should have been but still there) so i followed up with a letter of demand for payment of money owed to me and raised a number of concerns about the accuracy of the financials. They simply didn't fit with the activities in the business bank account. The response I got was the financials were accurate and had been audited each year and in response to my letter of demand I was told I was owed no money and would have to prove anything I thought I was owed. He then opened a new business bank account with another bank that I can't gain access to track his activities.
Now 3 days ago I again receive notice of a shareholder meeting to be held tomorrow morning and copies of the 2018 financial statements. The debt owed to me is still there as a directors loan. I haven't at this stage responded to the call for a shareholder meeting but again not enough time to analyze the financials and simply can't make it anyway.
Is the existence of a debt in the financial statements of the company enough evidence that the debt exists?
The debt is made up of expenses I paid on behalf of the company at startup and is for wages that were recorded but weren't drawn on fully when the cash flow of the business didn't allow for it. Some of the expenses are nearly 6yrs old and most of the receipts etc were retained by the business when I left so while I can show credit card statements showing a lot of the expenses but not all and I don't have matching receipts for a lot of them.
The debt also will include some expenses paid on my wife's credit card and some wages owed to her for the same reason as me. Should I only claim for the amounts owed to me even though it is all recorded under the 1 debt owed to me as a directors loan? Also should I only attempt to claim for what I can prove or the full amount and can I keep the right to claim for the other amounts later.
I think ultimately the amount is probably not relevant. I doubt he will ever pay me any money, I just need to bring this to an end in the quickest and cheapest way possible (considering I'm already significantly out of pocket, can't afford more legal expenses, and not going to get any money back). From what i can see from the activities of the business he has gained financially a lot while effectively creating more and more debt for the company and making it insolvent. It simply just isn't right that he has been allowed to get away with this.
I just don't want to take action that I could lose on and empower him, or worse but responsible for having to pay his expenses.
Sorry about the long post just wanted to try and give enough info. Thanks in advance for any opinions or advice I can get.
