A prominent liquidator appointed to take charge of the assets of dozens of defaulted borrowers has revealed he is actually a personal investor in the lender who appointed him and that his firm vets the company’s loans.
Hall Chadwick managing partner Richard Albarran disclosed that Blackbird Capital Group has referred 50 matters to his firm over 24 months, 10 times more than he previously disclosed, in documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission last week.
Albarran also disclosed for the first time that he and Hall Chadwick partner Drew Townsend are personal investors in Blackbird and that Hall Chadwick conducts accounting work and pre-lend reviews for the private lender.
The revelations come as Blackbird and Albarran are facing Federal Court action over claims of unconscionable conduct related to a failure to disclose an alleged conflict as receiver for Blackbird, with potential ramifications for other debtors going back six years.
Adero, the law firm that lodged the action on behalf of a debtor, is also considering a class action over the links and claims of unfair lending practices by Blackbird.
Despite confirming his investment, Albarran continued to deny any conflict while Blackbird denied he had any role or influence over the company.
Adero associate principal Zack Mason said affected borrowers would be asking the courts to consider the new information.
“Albarran has declared that he provides personal funding, pre-lend reviews and enforcement services in relation to Blackbird loans,” he said.
“With some 50 appointments referred by Blackbird to Hall Chadwick over two years in those circumstances, it is an extraordinary position for Albarran to maintain that there is no systemic conflict of interest.”
Blackbird and Albarran have been publicly silent on their relationship since April, when claims of Albarran’s secret interest in the lender were first reported.
Last month, Federal Court Justice Michael Feutrill hit Albarran with an injunction barring him from selling a debtor’s assets after finding there were serious questions about whether Blackbird had appointed Albarran as a receiver in bad faith and for an ulterior purpose.
Albarran was accused in the case of being an “indirect financier” of Blackbird who signed off on Blackbird’s loans while failing to disclose his financial interest to creditors and charging $600,000 in receivership fees.
Neither Blackbird nor Albarran made any admissions as to their financial relationship, and they denied any wrongdoing. The court has not made findings ahead of a trial.
But last Monday, Albarran filed a replacement declaration of independence, relevant relationships and indemnities for a separate company that Blackbird had appointed him to as administrator, and later as liquidator.
The company was 30-year-old Queensland helicopter company Calibre Aviation, to which Blackbird Private Equity had loaned $2.4 million. The company paid $961,000 of that money to the Australian Tax Office.
After winding up the company last year, Albarran, as liquidator, then sued the ATO and successfully clawed back $600,000 after arguing Calibre had been insolvent when it made the payment.
Under the Corporations Act, administrators and liquidators are required to disclose to creditors their relationships with parties that are closely connected to the company to ensure trust in their independence.
The requirements are more extensive for the professional body, Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association, particularly in relation to creditors entitled to enforce a security over the insolvent’s property.
In his initial declaration as at January last year, Albarran said Blackbird previously referred four other appointments to Hall Chadwick in addition to Calibre over a 24-month period.
But in his replacement declaration lodged last week, Albarran confirmed Blackbird had previously referred the firm 49 other appointments – equating to an average of about two a month.
Albarran and his team argued this did not count as a conflict of interest as there was no “understanding” with Blackbird about their approach towards the referral and other referrals were not in relation to Calibre.
Albarran revealed he and Townsend personally held units in a trust “as investors in Blackbird Investments”, despite Albarran initially declaring he had no relevant personal or professional relationships. Albarran and Townsend are by far the two biggest shareholders in Hall Chadwick.
Hall Chadwick also undertook “receivership, investigatory accountant roles as well as pre-lend reviews for Blackbird Private Equity”, the declaration said.
This too was no conflict, Albarran argued, as he and Townsend were not shareholders or directors of Blackbird and had “no control over the operations or loans issued by Blackbird”.
“Investors do not participate in any given transaction; funds are pooled and not secured over Blackbird Private Equity.”
Albarran and Townsend’s return as investors was “fixed” and “not linked” to Blackbird’s financial performance or Hall Chadwick’s work for the lender. Blackbird did not owe debt to Albarran, his trustee or Townsend, they said.
Asked at midday on Friday why he had not disclosed his role as an investor 18 months earlier and to further clarify his relationship to Blackbird, Albarran on Saturday said: “Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to provide a more fulsome response to the questions put to me.”
“I have at all times complied with my professional and statutory obligations,” he said.
Blackbird founder Stewart Wilkinson said Albarran and Townsend “are not shadow directors” and “do not have any role within Blackbird”.
“Drew Townsend and Richard Albarran do not hold any influence over the Blackbird Capital Group nor myself,” he said.
He said the pair never did any accounting work for the group and estimated Hall Chadwick performed pre-lend reviews in “less than 0.1 per cent of opportunities Blackbird is presented”.
Such reviews, which assess borrower credit risk, do not constitute a credit approval, he said, and Hall Chadwick’s role was disclosed to borrowers.
“I estimate less than 5 per cent of loans settled by Blackbird result in formal recovery appointments with Hall Chadwick.”
Source: https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-services/insolvency-boss-is-an-investor-in-firm-that-sent-him-50-referrals-20260830-p60sqh