BABCOCK & Brown management had proposed paying a $50 million dividend from its last-ever half-year profits just as its income was collapsing and it was forced to withdraw its previous forecast of another year of record earnings in 2008.
Chief finance officer Michael Larkin made the recommendation a few days before B&B's embattled board of directors ousted chief executive Phil Green in August 2008 and replaced him with Mr Larkin.
While B&B was still profitable at the time of the proposal, the asset management company was just about to unveil $175 million interim earnings - 30 per cent lower than the corresponding period a year before.
The dividend proposal was in line with B&B payout policy of handing over a third of the group's twice-yearly earnings. But it came as investor confidence was slipping amid a share price collapse in which B&B made write-downs and incurred trading losses of $440 million in the the half-year to June 30, 2008.
As it was, the revamped B&B board - which by August 21 included Mr Larkin as a director for the first time - rejected the dividend proposal and axed the payout.
The move, though, was to no avail as B&B went into administration the following March under a mountain of debt.
