Logistics heir Gregory O’Shea says he has just $2 in cash after birthday on private Fiji island

O’Shea, who did not respond to request for comment, owes more than $16 million to Westpac as part of a personal guarantee on his former business, Austrans, which was placed into liquidation in July last year.

Documents filed with the corporate regulator by liquidator Cor Cordis revealed it was investigating allegations that O’Shea had repeatedly breached his director duties and allowed the company to trade while insolvent.

A statutory report by Cor Cordis also confirmed the firm was examining claims that unfair preference payments and uncommercial transactions were made before Austrans’ sudden collapse.

“A number of stakeholders have raised concerns about the company’s conduct during the period prior to our appointment. The concerns raised appear to relate to the misappropriation of company and customer assets,” according to the report by Cor Cordis chief executive Daniel Juratowitch.

The long list of creditors includes 160 former employees who are owed more than $1.7 million in unpaid wages, superannuation and other entitlements.

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In March, O’Shea told The Age that his former company had been sabotaged by a rival transport operator, which he accused of illegally suspending its services to derail Austrans and its holding company, Vermile Pty Ltd.

“I categorically deny all the allegations in the liquidator’s report. The report is vague, outdated and contains inaccuracies concerning the inflated debt of $116 million which has been substantially exaggerated,” O’Shea said in March.

At the time, he also vowed to relaunch bankruptcy action against Nixon, despite the previous bankruptcy application being dismissed in the Federal Court in November last year when O’Shea failed to attend court.

“I didn’t even know about the last bankruptcy hearing, which is why I have changed lawyers. If you want to talk about Ricky Nixon, I’ll send you all the evidence,” he said.

O’Shea did not provide any evidence to The Age and no documents have been filed with the Federal Court.

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