Esta é a primeira edição do “Brasília em Pauta”, um boletim preparado pela equipe de Contencioso de Brasília, contendo os principais casos a serem julgados pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF), Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ) e Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU), bem como importantes questões a serem votadas pela Câmara dos Deputados e Senado Federal.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Combating Illegal Phoenixing) Act 2019 (Cth) (Amending Act) passed into law on 17 February 2020, over a year after it was first introduced to Parliament.   

Placing phoenix activity firmly in its crosshairs, the Amending Act introduces long anticipated reforms to Australia’s efforts to curb phoenix activity.  

Background 

New Rules for Imposing Personal Liability on Directors of Insolvent Companies

When a company enters into an insolvency process, a director may be made personally liable for an insolvent company’s debts on a few limited bases under the Insolvency Act 1986, the most common of which are:

1. wrongful trading: if the director knew or ought to have known that there was no reasonable prospect of avoiding insolvent liquidation and he did not take every step necessary with a view to minimising the loss to creditors;

Husky Int’l Electronics, Inc. v. Ritz, No. 15-145

Debtors seek the protections of the Bankruptcy Code to have their debts discharged, but there are exceptions. A creditor can prohibit discharge of a debt “obtained by … actual fraud.” 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(2)(A). Today, in a 7-1 decision written by Justice Sotomayor, the Supreme Court ruled that a fraudulent conveyance qualifies as “actual fraud.”

Husky International Electronics, Inc. v. Ritz, No. 15-145

A facilitation payment to encourage creditors to vote through the restructuring proposals of creditors’ debts has been held by the High Court not to be an illegal bribe. The court had regard to the fact that the offer of payment was made openly to all relevant creditors, none of whom were prevented from voting on the proposal. As such, where a creditor consented and received the facilitation payment, this was not contrary to the pari passu principle.

The facts