Herd on the Terrace: Peppie Grove dentist Peter Fiore set for freedom after fending off extortion charges

It looks like Peppermint Grove dentist and fringe business player Peter Fiore has done the deal of a lifetime in Bleak City. Fiore should have been on trial in Melbourne County Court with Victorian heavy Nick Bochrinis this week on aggravated burglary and multiple extortion charges over an alleged attempt to collect on a drug debt. But the trial did not proceed and court records show that Fiore has pleaded guilty to one charge of common assault over events in November 2019. The four other scarier charges against him were dropped by prosecutors. This is good news for HOTT because we have enjoyed covering Fiore’s battles in the WA Supreme Court with Regal Theatre owner Kim Knight and her bulldog lawyer Nick Kalmund over $850,000 that allegedly disappeared last year in a foreign investment. A conviction for extortion and aggravated burglary would likely have resulted in imprisonment for Fiore, who was convicted in the late 1980s for short-selling BHP shares he did not own and then for armed robbery. The adventurous cousin of Reserve Bank board member Mark Barnaba is due back before Melbourne Country Court on June 20, but a date for his sentencing is not known. Here’s hoping Fiore is free on July 27 and Jul 28 to defend a contempt action that Kalmund and his Hotchkin Hanly crew is prosecuting in the Supreme Court before the formidable Justice Gail Archer. And Her Honour pointed out this week that Fiore is unlikely to get Porridge even if he is convicted of contempt. A free man is a happy man. ASIC bares fangs at former WA boss The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is finally pushing back against its one-time WA regional commissioner Bruce Dodd, who is among about 100 backers of alleged investment scheme flogger Michael Dunjey. Dodd has been in the Federal Court challenging the regulator’s case against the former mountaineer and his insolvent flagship Ascent Capital and Coaching. Dodd, who has happily had part of his DIY superannuation fund with Dunjey since 2014, has suggested the bright lad was just borrowing money from folks and not running an illegal managed investment scheme. And the veteran lawyer has questioned whether ASIC should be paid legal costs after the row comes to a head at a hearing on June 29 and 30. Probably a reasonable question given Ascent allegedly has just $2m to pay debts of $140m. ASIC barrister Jonathon Moore insisted this week that Dodd make it clear whether he will be opposing ASIC being paid legal costs. Moore warned ASIC would be seeking its own costs orders against Dodd’s super company Seaflower if all the lawyers were forced to convene again next financial year to argue over bills. “I just need to put that on the record out of fairness to Mr Dodd,” Moore said. Dodd said his stance on costs would depend on the court’s finding later this month, including about whether Dunjey ran an unlawful managed investment scheme. ASIC suspects that Dunjey used new loans from investors to make payments on older loans, which is a polite way of saying it is probing whether he ran a Ponzi scheme. We look forward to the battle. Little change from Changeovers Liquidators are pondering a potential pursuit of the directors behind a home renovations company that went belly-up five months ago, leaving 50 customers in the lurch. Insolvency toe-cutters from Hall Chadwick reckon Changeovers Pty Ltd could have been insolvent from at least June 2019 - more than 2½ years before they were called in at the end of January. Of course, there would have to funds to support an insolvent trading claim against current and past directors and said directors would have to have assets worth pursuing for the benefit for creditors. Mt Hawthorn-based Changeovers employed 19 people and provided plumbing, gas, electrical, air-conditioning, cabinetry and tiling services when it collapsed with what Hall Chadwick estimates was a near $2 million shortfall in assets. Staff are owed $637,000, according to the liquidators’ latest statutory report, and other unsecured creditors $1.44m. The latter includes nearly $196,000 owed to 50 customers who were waiting for Changeovers to either complete or start work on their homes when the business collapsed. Hall Chadwick has yet to determine whether it can recover enough from the wreckage to return some cash to creditors.

Herd on the Terrace: Peppie Grove dentist Peter Fiore set for freedom after fending off extortion charges

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