Soundwave liquidators pay out – at less than 1%

by Jason Allen

The cheques have started arriving in the mailboxes of those who lost out when Soundwave went under. After all is said and done, there isn’t much left for the creditors. CX has been sent confidential copies of some cheques and the accompanying letters from the liquidator. They were not even able to get to 1% of monies owed – the cheques are for an underwhelming 0.987%.

On downloading publicly available documents relating to the liquidation from ASIC, the list of production and rental companies in the hole covers most of Australia’s big players, more than a few of the mid tier, right down to small specialist companies and individuals. While most will recover, some have not. Debts owed to companies range from $300,000 down to $400.

We assume the $3 million owed to the ATO was collected. Headliners Soundgarden, trading as ‘Stage Mutha Fakir’ were owed an astonishing $2.2 million. What really intrigued us, though, was why international ticket shysters Viagogo are listed as claiming a cool $585,000, with $100,000 agreed as owing by the liquidator. What possible truck could the festival have had with that nest of vipers?

All up, $17 million was claimed as left owing, with $10 million agreed by the liquidator. The majority of that was to Australian businesses and organisations.