8 February 2013
Words fail me.
Almost.
In particular, the subject is Mainzeal. I'm not surprised that Richard Yan is keeping a low profile; the Mainzeal collapse is a disaster of Brobdingnagian proportions.
There are any number of contractors who are being cost thousands, and even hundreds of thousands to millions, of dollars. There is no doubt that many businesses will close, and some people will go bankrupt as a result of the crash.
Yet, Yan will no more sell his Epsom house to help the subbies than the Martians will land in Lambton Quay tonight. Nor will Jenny Shipley sell any of her multi-million dollar assets to pay for the birthday presents kids of workers and subcontractors won't get this year, all because she, Yan and her fellow directors allowed a company to continue racking up debt when it was utterly failing.
Shipley & Co resigned in December, and they knew at that time the company was in its death throes.
Why do we allow these pricks to cost people their livelihoods?
The time has surely come that if companies take on debt they know they won't be able to pay - as in the Chch case in the link above - directors must be made personally liable for debts incurred.
And if any bank should seek to foreclose on a property because its owner has been made bankrupt/redundant resulting from the crash, then that bank should be boycotted by any thinking Kiwi. I will keep looking for any relevant details on that score.
In closing, no doubt other companies will pick up the slack from the Mainzeal failure. I trust those owners will give preference to people in trouble as a result of the receivership.
Copyright © Alan Charman