ASIC has disqualified Benjamin David Coventry Brown of Brisbane, Queensland, from managing corporations for three years and six months due to his involvement in the failure of two companies.

Mr Brown was a director of two companies that went into liquidation between 2015 and 2016:

• Mistyak Pty Ltd (ACN 067 416 899), and
• SL Consulting (QLD) Pty Ltd (ACN 142 901 871).

Mistyak operated two restaurants in Milton, Queensland while SL Consulting provided IT services to generate and optimise internet traffic.

ASIC  found that Mr Brown acted improperly and failed to meet his obligations as director when he:

• failed to ensure that SL Consulting complied with its tax obligations;
• allowed SL Consulting and Mistyak to perform unreasonable and uncommercial transactions;
• allowed SL Consulting to pay its sole employee a salary in excess of the employee’s contractual entitlements; and
• failed to prevent Mistyak from incurring debts when it was insolvent.

At the time of ASIC’s decision, the total amount owed to creditors across both companies was approximately $1,474,602.72, including $1,076,415.63 owed to the Australian Taxation Office. 

In making the decision to disqualify Mr Brown, ASIC relied on supplementary reports lodged by Mistyak’s liquidator, Gavin Morton of Morton and Lee Insolvency and SL Consulting’s liquidator, Thomas Dawson of DCL Advisory.

Mr Brown is disqualified from managing corporations until 8 November 2025.      

Mr Brown has the right to seek a review of ASIC’s decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Background

Section 206F of the Corporations Act allows ASIC to disqualify a person from managing corporations for a maximum period of 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 each of the company’s inability to pay its debts.

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

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