Bill Express web takes some unravelling

Web central

Mark Hawthorne

July 11, 2008

FORMER directors, financial officers and investors in the Bill Express and On Q empire have found the labyrinth of related companies almost impenetrable in recent years.

So it comes as little surprise to hear that administrator Craig Crosbie, of PPB, is embroiled in an almighty mess as he tries to untangle the web of businesses operating out of the Eaglemont headquarters.

Bill Express and 12 subsidiaries were put into administration on Tuesday.

The next day, the Technology Business Systems group of companies, which operated out of the same address, was also put into administration.

TBS developed the original software and equipment on which the Bill Express payments system operated.

TBS was operated by Sandro DiDonato, a close business associate of Ian and Hal Christiansen, who controlled Bill Express and On Q. Former staff from the Eaglemont office maintain that the Christiansens controlled TBS and related entities, even after their names were removed as directors in 2004.

Unfortunately for Crosbie, the administrators of TBS now claim it owned and maintained the electronic payments network on which the Bill Express system operated, not Bill Express.

TBS apparently owns the servers and terminals used to deliver the Bill Express network to newsagents and merchants across the country.

That means there may not even be a sale of used computer equipment to recoup funds for creditors.

One former TBS staffer told Full Disclosure that even the contents of the office stationery cupboard and the petty cash tin belong to TBS, not Bill Express.

On Wednesday, Crosbie told TBS not to incur any debts on behalf of Bill Express. That was easily done - after TBS was placed into administration, staff who had the knowledge to keep the Bill Express network running were dismissed on the spot.

Crosbie and his team are reportedly in discussions with TBS and its administrators to "clarify the current situation", according to a report from an industry newsletter covering the saga.

Mind you, there have been plenty of warnings about the relationship between On Q, Bill Express and TBS that have gone unheeded.

Disgruntled investors in On Q have quizzed the board about who owns the Bill Express system and intellectual property, to little avail.

Now, amid the collapse of Bill Express, those warnings are proving erudite.

Ground zeros

IF CRAIG Crosbie is looking for the black hole in the Bill Express books, he need look no further than the company's last annual report.

There, listed as a fee for auditing services and a review of corporate governance procedures, is a payment of $287 million to KPMG.

While KPMG, once the employer of former Bill Express chairman Michael Doery, did do rather well out of the Bill Express mess, Full Disclosure suspects that three extra zeros have been added to the payment in the annual report.

Meanwhile, details have been announced for the first meeting of creditors for Bill Express and 12 subsidiaries. It will be held at the Marriot Hotel in Lonsdale Street next Friday, from 1pm.