Hon. Timothy (Tim) Robert
Member for Goldstein (Vic)
Liberal Party of Australia
Elected to the House of Representatives for Goldstein, Victoria, 2016. Re-elected 2019.
Member of the Joint Statutory Committee on Intelligence and Security.

Transcript
Mr TIM WILSON (Goldstein) (13:38): I seek leave to table documents in the House related to allegations of a Chinese state-linked entity deliberately seeking to liquidate Australian companies.

Leave granted.
Mr TIM WILSON: I table the documents. If an Australian company were maliciously liquidated at the direction of a Chinese state-linked entity, this House would rightly be outraged, and it should be. That why I bring to the attention of the House the liquidation of Sargon at the request of Taiping Trustees as the financing arm of Chinese state-linked enterprise China Taiping. The documents that have come into my possession appear to indicate that there has been a deliberate campaign to trigger the receivership of Sargon by China Taiping. The documents allude to the fact that, using a PR firm, stories were deliberately seeded to raise doubts about the sustainability of an Australian company, to the advancement of the Chinese linked interests. The allegations are that the interest payments on finance were deliberately redirected to present a failure to service debt. Consequently, contractual terms would be triggered, allowing for the appointment of an administrator, who would appoint a liquidator for Sargon. By triggering such terms, ASIC did not scrutinise the claims of creditors. The allegation is that, in doing so, it allowed China Taiping to take control of Sargon and its interests, physical and intellectual.

Like many members, in tabling the documents, I say that the documents presented form only part of a complex picture, but there is a public benefit in the allegations being investigated and made out. The documents include financial statements and other important matters. These are serious allegations. In the interests of Australian companies that might secure finance from Chinese state-linked entities, the documents are tabled to ensure scrutiny and, should the claims be made out, a warning. 

Transcript of the Australian Parliament available at Hansard.

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The email contained a confirmation that the $4.4 million payment in December 2019 was applied fully in discharge of interest under the Secured Promissory Notes, covering a late September quarter payment and an early December quarter payment.

This email adds to the conclusive body of evidence now with police and regulators including Taiping’s own bank statements, accounting journal entries and internal emails which are all consistent with Sargon’s accounting that no interest was owing when receivers were appointed.

Creditors of Sargon will be interested to hear from Wexted as to why they withheld this critical information from their Statutory Report to Creditors dated 22 May 2020 published nearly 2 months later.

Ashurst failed to discover this critical email exchange to the Supreme Court of Victoria for over 18 months until they had no choice after Wexted came forward with the truth.

I’d like to personally thank Wexted for doing the right thing eventually.

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Sunday 29 May 2022 – 22:18:26

Ahead of critical hearings in the Supreme Court of Victoria between 30 May 2022 and 16 June 2022, a group of fairly well trained operatives attempted to intimidate me and planted a listening and tracking device on my car. This has been reported to Victoria Police.

Sunday – 29 May 2022 (Day before trial)

On the day before trial commenced, I was approached throughout the day by a range of people asking me different leading questions. Questions like: “Do you own this house?” or “Is this your car?” and more offensive/intimidating remarks.

Video 1: Start delicate to gather information

Primary angle: 15:56:54 to 15:57:27 on 29 May 2022
Secondary angle: 16:07:24 to 16:07:45 on 29 May 2022

One of the people who approached me that day that I did get on camera was a woman who presented like a private investigator to ask me some questions.

She continued to watch the house for 10 minutes from across the street until I got back into the car to head out and she got into her car to start tailing. You can see her in the top right just around the corner across the street – still with her envelope.

Video 2: Confirm vehicle and coordinate with colleague for the drop

Later that day after dark, two operatives, one confirming car plate details, anchoring the scene and his partner getting into position. The operatives never look up and do not give away any personal features.

They planted a low-tech listening device on my car to (presumably) listen to my conversations and otherwise attempt to get dirt on me. This device also functioned as a low footprint (hard to backtrace) tracking device.
Primary angle: 22:17:23 to 22:18:52 on 29 May 2022
Secondary angle: 22:17:23 to 22:17:32 on 29 May 2022

Video 3: Listening and tracking device planted

Primary angle: 22:27:05 to 22:27:39 on 29 May 2022
Secondary angle: 22:27:24 to 22:27:36 on 29 May 2022

Aftermath

I moved to another location straight away for my safety but checked in on the situation over the week. There were vans with tinted windows in the street throughout the week and some truly strange goings-on. I thought nobody could possibly be trying to run covert surveillance and be this bad, then I realised that they wanted me to see.

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The Australasian Law Awards 2022 have graciously removed Ashurst from the list of awardees in the “Sargon restructuring and recapitalization” award in the “Insolvency & Restructuring Deal of the Year” category. We, the victims, salute you.

Before our letter sent 26 March 2022
https://auslawawards.com.au/excellence-awardees/2022

After our letter sent 26 March 2022
https://auslawawards.com.au/excellence-awardees/2022

This can be confirmed with the Archive.org “Way Back Machine” which shows the page as of 27 March 2022 still including Ashurst then comparing that with today which has all names unchanged except Ashurst removed.

I commend Ashurst for being good sports about this and for the Australasian Law Awards 2022 for actioning this so quickly. The victims will be very thankful indeed and there is hope for the counter-foreign interference in Big Law movement in Australia.

I gave my word that I would not publish our detailed letter of complaint if they obliged, so I will honour that promise. 

I hope that everyone has a good night !

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Greenberg did not get the coveted partner spot he had been working toward for nearly 12 years after it appears Ashurst have taken my advice and moved him along.

David Greenberg was one of the “Gang of Three” who appointed receivers over Sargon under unconscionable and potentially unlawful circumstances on 29 January 2020. The others were the award winning Mr James Marshall and Ms Minna Zhang. Ms Zhang was exiled to Hong Kong a month after the receivership appointment when Ashurst first learned that interest was fully paid on their appointment. I do not begrudge Ms Zhang as I do not believe she really had any power to stop what her bosses had put in motion. 

On the left we have David Greenberg and on the right we have his replacement Bernie Walrut. For the non-lawyer reader, when you do 12 years waiting to become partner and that doesn’t happen, it usually is not a good reflection of your performance.

In this case Mr Greenberg’s demise occurred straight after credible documents tabled in Parliament revealed that interest was fully paid up when Sargon was placed into receivership by Ashurst after some extremely creative law firm trust accounting in December 2019. The cover up had failed, so Marshall had to roll a head otherwise it was his. Greenberg was the only choice. Sorry, not sorry.

I understand that Mr Marshall’s KPIs for Bernie Walrut include:

1. Not appointing receivers over anyone while Mr Marshall is on holiday; 
2. Memorising the Legal Profession Uniform General Rules (2015) for law firm trust accounting; 
3. Not losing an Ashurst client $200 million in a day; and
4. Not lying to regulators and courts as default practice.

To Butter Knife Greenberg, use this as an opportunity to reflect on your actions and how they affect others. Good luck!

To Vincent Young, I hope you’ve done your due diligence – lucky you are not an unlimited liability partnership for what is to come.

More at https://www.ashurst.com/en/news-and-insights/news-deals-and-awards/ashurst-boosts-restructuring-team-with-new-partner-in-sydney

As many of my readers will know James Marshall and the team that he leads holds a number of coveted awards:

• Best Lawyers Australia – “Best Lawyer in Insolvency and Reorganisation Law” 2020
• PhillipKingston.com’s – “Fattest Windsor Necktie Outside of Capital Markets” 2020
• PhillipKingston.com’s – “Exposed and Proud” for the insolvency practitioner with two or more houses in his own name. Uncontested – 2020 through 2022.

Ashurst have nominated themselves in the Australasian Law Excellence Awards 2022 “Insolvency & Restructuring Deal of the Year” for Sargon restructuring and recapitalization alongside a raft of other firms. In fact, it appears as though the Sargon matter had more firms on it than just about anything else. Ashurst were hoping for nominations in the “Unlawfulest Means Conspiracy” and “Fanciest Repudiation” categories, but have to make do with “Restructuring and Recapitalization” for now.

Sargon restructuring and recapitalization

Firms: ABL, Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Clayton Utz, Clifford Chance (Australia), Ernst & Young, Gilbert + Tobin, Hall & Wilcox, Herbert Smith Freehills, Minter Ellison, Quin Emanuel, White & Case (NY)

Australasian Law Awards 2022 – https://auslawawards.com.au/excellence-awardees/2022

Ashurst have ruined many lives through their false Sargon receivership:

• Innocent, loyal and talented staff who were on visas sponsored by Sargon or Trimantium entities placed into receivership were immediately dislocated in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under Australian law, all visas are cancelled when the sponsoring company is placed into receivership – lawfully or otherwise. This was not a nice thing to do.
• Innocent contractors and working families never got paid because of how botched the interaction with the Voluntary Administration was. I lost 7 years of annual leave accruals instantly.
• Countless courts and regulators were systemically lied to including ASIC and APRA. This is the subject of my next post now that critical FOI information has been obtained.
• Two PR firms were engaged to destroy my and other’s reputations to try to cover it up. These were Sefiani and Bluechip Communications. One of these firms has come forward to me and apologised. My door is wide open for the other one, should you wish to avoid litigation down the road.
• The appointment itself was a direct client-client conflict with Sargon CT and Trimantium Life’s own ongoing work with Ashurst. Ashurst’s own defamation team working for James Marshall against me was a firm-client conflict with Sargon, Trimantium, China Taiping, and now Ashurst’s opposition in the Federal Court is probably the most conflicted appointment in Australian legal history when matters center on their own trust accounting and partner’s conduct. Read more.
• Zero money was recovered for China Taiping after Ashurst’s own costs and expensive goose chases. Two of the three lawyers on this “deal of the year” have now been moved on from Ashurst. How does this win an award?
• Every promise Ashurst made after January 2020 was reneged upon, including to almost every other firm in the award with them. The way Ashurst treated GrowthOps and Westpac in particular was disgraceful. This will all come out.
• Ashurst has cost me millions in legal fees and lost my shareholders tens of millions of equity.
• Australian creditors such as Westpac, GrowthOps and OneVue/IRESS lost tens of millions because of Ashurst conduct.

Now you might think that’s just a day in the life of James Marshall’s Ashurst-branded Thiefdom, but to now be nominating yourselves for an award for this work? This is not just an insult to whatever modicum of legal ethics you had left, it is inhuman level of privilege, arrogance and pride.

Please do not put the families of those lives you have ruined in extreme financial distress, visa losses/dislocation and defamation through the humiliation of accepting an award for profiteering off their demise. James – this is on you.

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