A meeting of creditors of Technology Business International Pty Ltd (TBI) was held on July 17, 2008 at the offices of Chartered Accountants Rogers Reidy in Queen Street Melbourne. TBI is the company with which newsagents signed for the lease of equipment needed to run Bill Express.
At the time of preparation of the notice of the creditors meeting the company had five creditors, the largest being HSBC Bank Australia Limited which was owed $3.4 million. This was secured debt. Mobius Financial was listed as a secured creditor with $1 in advised debt. Charters Paper and Dueltek were listed as being owed $72,473 and $907 respectively. The final creditor was Embedeed Technologies showing as being owed $47,755. Embedded Technologies operated from the Bill Express office in Eaglemont.
On the ASIC Summary of Affairs of a Company From 509, Sandro DiDonato, Director, declared that TBI had assets of $240,829 of which $225,629 was cash at bank and $15,200 was sundry debtors. This is extraordinary for a business which signed leases a few years earlier with 3,500 newsagents for amounts of between $26,000 and $32,000 per newsagency.
Newsagents were not notified about the meeting because they were not considered creditors by the liquidator. The liquidator’s representative with whom we spoke said that “TBI had no case to answer to newsagents”. I am sure that newsagents facing months and even years of paying the TBI lease on worthless equipment would have a different view.
One can only hope that ASIC and other authorities will invest sufficient resources to uncover what really went on with TBI, Bill Express, OnQ, ETT and all o the other businesses connected with this mess.
Go to my blog post from June 28 for more information on the TBI group. That post includes this information:
- TBI is owned by Technology Business Holdings Pty Ltd (TBH) and has two Directors, one of whom is Sandro DiDonato.
- Technology Business Systems Pty Ltd (TBS) is owned by TBH and has one Director, Sandro DiDonato.
- TBH has four shareholders, the largest (96.5% of issued capital) being Equip Rentals Pty Ltd and one Director, Sandro DiDonato.
- Equip Rentals Pty Ltd was deregistered on 9 December, 2007. It had one shareholder, Sandro DiDonato and two directors, one of whom was Sandro DiDonato.
TBH and TBS remain registered with ASIC today.
What I want to know is who checked the TBI contact for newsagents? Did the association do this?
Time to start writing to your local member people. Lets ALL do it and see what we get.
Hi Mark,
This is a classic example of a third line forcing position.
Bill Express has encouraged participants, via their contract, to enter into an agreement with a Bill Express associated company to buy equipment so that they can participate in the Bill Express contract. Bill Express have then, when potentially insolvent and to obtain the final drawdown of their ANZ facility, onsold the debt exposure to another company who is feigning ignorance at the real position.
If the Bill Express company who sol dthe debt is noe only holding assets of $250k plus, you have to ask what the debt was sold for and where the money is.
It’s a pity our regulators don’t get involved in this before the victims have to shell out millions to prove their case.
Over to you Mr Samuels
Have a good day
as TBI own the terminals wouldn’t they be assets which should be declared
I recieved my letter from Mobius today like many others, stating what my obligations to them were. No mention of what thier obligations to me where at all. Nice one.
Steve – TBI do own the terminals BUT Mobius has a charge over these assets
DONT FORGET YOU HAVE UNTILL CLOSE OF BUSINESS ON FRIDAY TO CLOSE YOUR OLD BANK ACCOUNTS AND OPEN NEW ONES-OTHERWISE WE WILL ALL GET A BIG SURPRISE FROM THE BIG BAD WOLF!!!!!
CAN ANYBODY PLEASE TELL ME HOW MUCH OUR ANF ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS WILL GO UP NEXT YEAR NOW THAT BILL EXPRESS IS NO LONGER FUNDING THEM????? I GUESS IT WILL BE AROUND $100.00 TO $150.00 EXTRA. NOT BAD WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT!!!!
Lorraine,
Not sure if this is third line forcing. They could argue the case of having an “agency relationship” or that it was the “single supply of a packaged product/service”.
Third line forcing is not the most robust of laws. It has many exemptions and is open to much interpretation due to its intended purpose.
Jarryd,
Given their demand we continue to pay for equipment rental despite the fact the rest of the BE network is no longer supplied, it would seem to me they have shown by their own actions that it is not part of a “single supply of packaged product/service”.
Likewise, how can they claim an “agency relationship” as agent for a service that no longer exists?
Thank you for posting this information. We should have been informed about the TBI meeting because we could make a case for being creditors. To not even have a chance is frustrating. I am surprised (not) the ANF was not on top of this.
John
What more detailed info do you know about the ‘big bad wolf’ attempting further drawings from our bank accounts on 26 July (even though most of us have put in place direct debit cancellations for all B/Exp and related parties). Is Mobius going to come in under another “description/code” in order to draw monies in the words of their very open ended direct debit authority..”to debit….our account….with all amounts due and payable in accordance with the equipment rental agreement governing the rental account…”. Are they going back to drawing under the name of Mobius with only a general description appearing our account eg ‘bill express rental’ or ‘equipment rental’ plus a drawing code’ whilst knowing that they will be attempting to reject the reversal their end when it is sent back by our various banking institutions. Once this debiting and reversing and re-debiting happens the banks will throw it back to the customer and tell them to sort it out directly with Mobius. (Unless we all close the account…..and what a painful exercise that is with all the direct credits/debits we all have with legitimate and moral entities. We are part of the QNF class action group and advice from legal authorities is NOT TO PAY.
I do notice (with amusement) that contained with the fine print of the direct debit authority are the words that if we have have a dispute re the direct debit then we ‘should contact your Rental Originator in the first instance….the contact details are as set out in the Equipment Rental Agreement’…..and guess who they are…TBI!!!! Talk about going around in circles, I’m getting giddy.
However this is one little piggy that the big bad wolf is not going to get the better of – I get more irate every day at the depth to which this nest of vipers has dug their pit – it is almost as if they knew at the start exactly how it was going to end and prepared for it long before any of us had been approached to take on Bill Express.
Hi Liz
I instructed my bank to place a freeze on all withdrawals from my account for 5-days over the weekend.
We have had to careful and take into account outstanding cheques direct debits etc.
If there is any attempt by another body to withdraw funds it will be dishonoured and the withdrawal no’s will be registered and then we can remove the access and add it to the list of DD numbers that have had the access removed.
I will do the same next month as the 26 falls on a Wednesday I will freeze the account for 3 days.
Deposits can still be entered into the account.
I received my letter from mobius today addressed to Stauton Investments Pty Ltd I have no idea who this company is. I would return it but there is no return address. Does anyone know if the merchant no is the contract no i cant seem to locate a contract no on my paperwork. What is the general thought on closing your bank account and is there going to be a new drawing code. I successfully stopped the debit last month but if they change the code it will proberly go through.
hi liz,
I gather as much that they (BE) have long planned this to con us.
If I remember correctly, there was mention that earlier batches of sign-ups did not have the rental figure written into their contract.
So when their contract ran out in March this year, there were no drawings of this mthly rental from their a/cs.
Only the later ones, of which I am one, have the amount of $495 ex GST in the contract.
I am sure after 1-2 yrs in the launch, they were aware that their venture was not going to churn out the profits they expect and so took this action in the writing of their contract.
About the direct debit, I too have planned for the event that I might need to stop it.
So I opened a new bank a/c back in Apr08, and started to transfer away all other day-to-day non billexp/dialtime transactions.
I am glad I did it and so when the time came to stop the direct debit in Jun08 and close the bank a/c, it was all smooth…….
Guess what came through the fax yesterday, another new **exciting** venture from ANF/VANA.
I am afraid we are not excited anymore…..once bitten twice shy!!!
helen
We also got notice of the next ‘exciting’ venture – 3 faxes no less – my fax machine was running hot while we were coping with more than double the number of customers with the OZ lotto jackpot. Are we ‘excited’???? Wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole….and anything else the ANF puts its little paws into..EVER!
yeah does anyone know what this next scam is all about ?
one thing is for sure i am not sighning anything that any of these groups recomend wether it be nana vana anf qnf there all as bad as each other .
David,
At the time of the sale it could be seen as the “single supply of a packaged product/service”.
Again, at the time of the sale they could argue that there was an agency relationship. This would of course require them to have an agency agreement.
I’m not saying these defences would hold up in court, just that they are two possible arguments that could be put foward.
Can anybody come up with any reason at all to renew one’s ANF membership?
Who was that bloke calling for the guru to form a body? – yes I’m with you!
My compliments also to Mark Hawthorne of the Age: Love his work.
I am curious as to the rights of people who bought a newsagent etc with a a Bill Express System already installed. A Five year contract that should have been transferrable with new owners and therefore business whom have had their system installed for five years no matter how many owners should actually now own the terminal? Can any-one shed some light why Bill Express has not taken the amount of time ‘in store’ into consideration and has treated each new owner as a new customer!! When you buy a business it is classed as an assett and is transferrable, why isn’t the time in store transferrable?
I’m in that situation Lucinda.
I’m still trying to find out when it was installed. Obviously the past owners took all of their paperwork with them.
I just received a letter from Pepper Homeloans who claim to be acting on behalf of TBI and are demanding arrears payments.
The battle begins……….
Intresting…..
Mr Sandro DiDonato is now Managing Director of Activ8me, which is owned by APN
Activ8me are heavly subsidies by the goverment, with a lot of cash involved.