Steven Andrew Soong, of Concord New South Wales, has been banned by ASIC from managing corporations for three and a half years.

Mr Soong's banning follows the appointment of liquidators to three companies he managed, Kalnosa Pty Ltd, Linsari Pty Ltd and Larsay Pty Ltd.

As a result of information shared between members of the Phoenix Taskforce and in addition to information provided by the liquidators of the failed companies, ASIC was concerned Mr Soong failed to discharge his duties as a director by using tax debts that were collected on labour hire costs to continue trading the companies instead of remitting the debt to the Australian Taxation Office.

The liquidators of Kalnosa Pty Ltd, Linsari Pty Ltd and Larsay Pty Ltd identified a total of $1,203,386.72 in tax liabilities.

ASIC Commissioner, John Price said, 'The Phoenix Taskforce brings Australia's key regulatory and enforcement agencies to share information and identify directors who use companies to benefit themselves at the expense of creditors. Failing to remit company tax has detrimental consequences and adversely affects the Australia's revenue base. It also gives directors an unfair advantage when competing for work with businesses that play by the rules'.

Mr Soong's banning took effect from 7 September 2017.

Background

Section 206F of the Corporations Act allows ASIC to disqualify a person from managing corporations for up to five years if, within a seven-year period, the person was an officer of two or more companies, and those companies were wound up and a liquidator provides a report to ASIC about the company’s inability to pay its debts.

ASIC also maintains a public register of banned and disqualified persons that provides information about people who have been:

• disqualified from involvement in the management of a corporation;
• disqualified from auditing self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs); or
• banned from practising in the financial services of credit industry.

The reports prepared by the liquidators of Kalnosa Pty Ltd, Linsari Pty Ltd and Larsay Pty Ltd were assisted by funding from the Assetless Administration Fund.

The Phoenix Taskforce comprises 20 Federal, State and Territory government agencies that provides a whole of government approach whose sole agenda is to combat illegal phoenix activity. It uses sophisticated data matching tools to identify, manage and monitor suspected illegal phoenix activity.

The Phoenix Taskforce is continuing to investigate.