ASIC bans Gutnick for four years

The corporate watchdog has disqualified mining magnate Joseph ‘Joe’ Gutnick from managing companies after finding he acted improperly as a director.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission today announced Mr Gutnick, of St Kilda East in Victoria, has been disqualified from managing corporations for four years.

ASIC said the ban related to his involvement in three failed companies between June 2016 and March 2020.

Despite being based in Melbourne, Mr Gutnick was a well-known businessman in the Western Australian gold industry.

In 1991, Mr Gutnick and Mark Creasy entered The Guinness Book of Records when Mr Gutnick ’s company at the time, Great Central Mines, paid Mr Creasey a record $115 million for the Bronzewing gold project.

However, Mr Gutnick declared himself bankrupt in July 2016 with debts of more than $275 million.

Mr Gutnick was a director of now-deregistered Asix Consultants, and companies in liquidation, Merlin Diamonds Limited and Legend International Holdings, according to ASIC.

In its statement, ASIC said it found Mr Gutnick acted improperly and failed to meet his obligations as a director of those companies.

According to ASIC, Mr Gutnick allowed Merlin to lend $13 million in funds to Axis when it was detrimental to the company, allowed Merlin to trade while insolvent, failed to monitor Axis’s financial affairs, and failed to help Axis’s liquidator when requested.

ASIC also found Legend and Merlin owed a total $43.2 million to unsecured creditors, including the Shire of Wyndham/East Kimberley, Department of Primary Industry and Resources, Western Australian State Revenue Office and WA Department of Mines, Industry.

Other unsecured creditors included Mount Isa City Council, Northern Land Council, Northern Territory Department of Transport, and the Queensland Department of Transport, ASIC said.

ASIC said it relied on supplementary reports lodged by liquidators from Rodgers Reidy, Deloitte, and KordaMentha for its decision to disqualify Mr Gutnick.

Mr Gutnick is disqualified from managing corporations until March 2028, but has the right to seek a review of ASIC’s decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.