[AusNOG] PennyTel/Hi-Tech/iVoisys In Liquidation

[Skeeve Stevens]

All,

This might be old news to some people, but I missed anything back in June,
so it is all new to me.

Just an FYI as I know a lot of people dealt with them at one time or
another.

...Skeeve

---

*From CRN, 24th November 2013* -
http://www.crn.com.au/News/361711,pennytel-in-liquidation-amid-fraud-claims.aspx?eid=4&edate=20131024&utm_source=20131024&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter

PennyTel in liquidation amid fraud claims
Dragged under by Hi-Tech Telecom in liquidation.

Mobile reseller PennyTel and wholesale VoIP provider iVoisys have both been
forced into liquidation, after the NSW Supreme Court heard evidence of
questionable payments to the companies from a debt-laden parent company.

PennyTel offered mobile and broadband plans running on the Vodafone
network, while iVoiSys resold IP telephony and unified communications
services over the same network. Both were ordered by the NSW Supreme Court
to appoint a provisional liquidator last week.

Until March 2013, both PennyTel and iVoisys were run by director Amadu
Yahaya, an African national based in Sydney.

Yahaya was also the founder and sole director of Hi-Tech Telecom (HTT), a
networking and VoIP provider to the enterprise market, which entered into
liquidation in June 2013 after its major creditor investigated a series of
suspect financial transactions made by the company.

>From around September 2010, HTT had entered into a factoring
facility<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoring_(finance)> with
Allianz whereby the creditor would loan HTT funds against unpaid invoices
from customers. HTT's original limit of $7.1 million ballooned to $15
million by March 2012.

When HTT sought a further increase earlier this year, Allianz embarked on
an independent verification of the balance of cash owed to Hi-Tech Telecom
by its debtors.

Allianz discovered that several purported customers had no dealings with
HTT, while others acted in a suspicious manner — causing the bank to
question the legitimacy of HTT’s invoices.

Further investigation revealed that 21 of 45 debtors said to owe $23
million to HTT never had any dealings with the company. The remaining 24
were not able to be reached.

Liquidators were appointed, with Allianz as secured creditor, who is still
owed some $14.4 million.

*'Unjustified payments'*

Hi-Tech's receivers have now come after the PennyTel and iVoiSys businesses.

All three companies are registered at the same residential address in North
Ryde. Yahaya was the sole director of both iVoiSys and PennyTel until March
2013.  Megan Havyatt, also registered at the same address, is now the sole
director of both. The court heard evidence that Havyatt and Yahaya were in
a domestic relationship with two children.

The directorship of HTT, meanwhile, was transferred to one Robert Van
Leeuwen, who has not assisted recievers with their investigations.

The court found that Yahaya had transferred $3.9 million to PennyTel and
$1.2 million to iVoiSys earlier this year, for no apparent reason.

"I am satisfied that the evidence shows that, on the face of things, a
fraud appears to have been perpetrated on Allianz and on HTT," said Supreme
Court Justice James Stevenson in a judgment granting search and freeze
orders against Yahaya, iVoiSys and PennyTel on behalf of HTT in June.

No business records for the operations of HTT were able to be found.

Yahaya was not present for the June hearings, his last contact with HTT's
recievers made by telephone, in which Yahaya claimed to be in Los Angeles,
USA.
---
*From Commsday, 25th November 2013*

*VoIP providers in liquidation following court proceedings*

A group of small telco resellers that includes mobile reseller and voice
over IP provider Pennytel as well as VoIP provider Ivoisys have gone into
liquidation. Both companies were involved in a court case in June this year
with Hi Tech Telecom, also now in liquidation, which is being chased by
credi- tors including Allianz for millions of dollars allegedly owing.

In the court case in June, HTT alleged that Pennytel and Ivoisys owed it
$3.9 million and $1.3 mil- lion respectively, while an amount of $14.4 is
owed by HTT to Allianz, according to the court docu- ments. HTT is also
alleging fraud against Pennytel and Ivoisys, which both share a registered
office. In June, the Supreme Court found that Amadu Yahaya, the sole
shareholder of HTT, had transferred some $1.2 million to Ivoisys and the
sum of $3.9 million to PennyTel, from funds that had been ad- vanced by
Allianz. Yahaya has since moved overseas.

The court proceeding noted that the receivers have been unable to find any
regular business rec- ords of HTT. The only source of documentary
information available to the receivers to date is infor- mation that they
have been able to obtain from Allianz, from HTT's bankers (NAB and Westpac)
and from ASIC.

It's also not the first time the companies have been involved in
controversy. In 2011 Optus cut the service of PennyTel, forcing it to port
its customers over to Vodafone. At the time Optus had said that the move
was a “commercial decision”.

HTT had previously been sued for unpaid invoices by Uganda Telecom in a
case that took place in Uganda but was registered by the courts in
Australia. An arbitrator had delivered an award against Hi- Tech, and
Uganda Telecom applied to the Federal Court to register the award as an
Australian judgement.

Geoff Long
 ---

...Skeeve

*Skeeve Stevens - *eintellego Networks Pty Ltd
skeeve at eintellegonetworks.com ; www.eintellegonetworks.com

Phone: 1300 239 038; Cell +61 (0)414 753 383 ; skype://skeeve

facebook.com/eintellegonetworks ;  <http://twitter.com/networkceoau>
linkedin.com/in/skeeve

twitter.com/theispguy ; blog: www.theispguy.com


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