The funding firm set up by a group of now-discredited and disbarred lawyers to pay for litigation in the Banksia Securities case has gone into administration after the revelation it has virtually no assets.
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Australian Funding Partners Limited (AFPL) was found to be liable for $21.7 million in damages and costs to Banksia investors in October, after years of litigation by debenture holders following the crash of the firm in 2012.
Investors were owed over $660 million by Banksia
The principals of the litigation funder were condemned as having committed 'fraudulent and appalling' actions by Supreme Court trial judge Justice John Dixon.
Two were subsequently struck from the Victorian Bar Roll, with two more facing removal. Two of the lawyers have subsequently declared bankruptcy.
AFPL is expected to go into liquidation, with Cor Cordis partners Barry Wight and Rachel Burdett appointed administrators. Cor Cordis will hold a first creditors meeting on Friday, Lawyerly Media reports.
The funding vehicle of the late solicitor Mark Elliott, AFP and the legal team that led the class action were found to have engaged in "egregious conduct in connection with a fraudulent scheme" to pocket close to $20 million in fees and commission from the case.
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