Changtel Liquidator Begbies Traynor wants a collective £50 million which the company paid to its key suppliers returned.
Microsoft, Fujitsu and Swann have all received a note from Changtel which was liquidated in 2015 following a dispute with HMRC over alleged unpaid VAT.
Jason Tsai, whose family once controlled Changtel, was recently banned from being a company director for 13 years.
In February 2016, Changtel’s liquidator, Begbies Traynor, reached a £1.2 million settlement with Entatech, an independent entity which went into administration last week.
Begbies is now chasing other parties that traded with Changtel in the lead-up to its liquidation to claw back cash when it was presented with a winding-up petition on 7 June 2013, and the date of the winding-up order, on 28 January 2015. It claims that the deals were void.
Microsoft, Fujitsu and Swann are among Begbies’ top targets because they received payments in the region of £11 million , £6 million and nearly £2 million from Changtel. Mad Catz, a gaming hardware vendor which recently ceased trading, received £600,000.
A letter dated August 2016 sent by Begbies to one of the vendors involved requests that the sums they received during this period be paid back in full if validation orders were not obtained for them.
Insolvency laws are designed to protect any dispersal of assets in the period between the presentation of a winding-up petition and the formal liquidation.
