Tuesday 26 October 2010

Warren Entsch's media adviser 'devastated' at company collapse

The Federal MP for Leichhardt's senior media advisor is believed to be devastated following the voluntarily liquidation of her media business, leaving debts of $267,000 to over 70 Cairns' businesses, as I blogged on Friday.

Last evening Trent Evans from 7 News picked up the story. He talked with some of those owed money outside the creditors' meeting yesterday.

However discussions inside the meeting were very icy, when it was revealed there was no money to pay those owed money. 72 creditors are listed on the Liquidator's documents, including many local media organisations and some former employees.

"Warren Entsch's media advisor is in hot water over unpaid debts, owing over $250,000, while Danae Jones continues to collect a taxpayer-funded wage," the 7 News broadcast introduced.

"I haven't been paid for a month," former employee Petra Lovey told 7 News. "It has sent me back already of course. I have not been able to find another job, so it's tough."

7 News' Trent Evans also highlighted the ownership of the property on McLeod Street, that is now for sale.

"The building used by the liquidated business is owned by another of Ms Jones' companies, the S4 Group, it's now on the market for more than $1 million, but she is not legally required to use any profit to repay debts," Trent Evans said.

At the creditors' meeting the liquidators said that when Ms Jones first lodged the application for voluntary liquidation with ASIC, it looked like there was only" around $13,000 of recoverables," yet KPMG as liquidators, were seeking $15,000 in fees. It is understood that Ms Jones gave a personal guarantee for the shortfall.

However at the meeting it was revealed that there is now only "around a couple of hundred recoverable." It also came to light that they only discovered the full extent of the property ownership via "the internet."

"We're not planning to play out this particular case in the media, it is just our company policy, so creditors can get the best outcome," the spokesperson from KPMG told the meeting.

It was rather odd that the Cairns Post, in their brief three-sentence mention, deliberately excluded the prominent role that Danae Jones now enjoys, as senior media advisor to our local Federal MP, Warren Entsch.

Maybe her media chums at the Cairns Post are still on the Latte list?

5 comments:

Evil Munchkin said...

Who's to bet this Danae, makes absolutely NO effort to pay back any of her former employees or creditors with our (Taxpayers) Money.

Hopefully COMMON SENSE prevails & she doesn't last long on the Taxpayer's Payroll as no one with this utter lack of integrity & responsibility should be on the public pay roll.

Warren Power said...

Back off mate,Danae Jones is from a very morally correct family and will do her utmost to clear up any creditors to the best of her ability.She is a local girl who has got off her ass,had a vision,had a dream and worked so very hard to acheive it.Yes she may have fallen victim to various business decisions dragging her business down but I know Danae she wont lie down and she will bounce back,give her a chance and dont question her integrity or morals.

Evil Munchkin said...

Mate, she didn't pay her staff then threatened to call the police when they asked her for their money, sure sounds morally correct to me!!

Matt CYP said...

I can't comment on the collapse of In Touch Media, but I do know Ms Jones well enough to be confident that she has not behaved dishonestly, and that she is working hard to resolve the situation and repay creditors.

And I'm no fan of Warren Entsch, but Evil's suggestion that Ms Jones shouldn't be working for him is just ridiculous - she is well qualified for the task and nothing that has occurred would preclude her working in that role.

Small businesses go belly-up all the time, especially when the effects of a global financial crisis are ironically exacerbated in our local economy by the strong performance of the Aussie dollar.

Evil Munchkin said...

Matt if you think that someone who rips of her employees isn't behaving dishonestly what is??