Millions of dollars’ worth of stock have been stripped out of the Sydney based Lifestyle store that is supposed to be under the management of administrators, however ChannelNews understands that an investor who put money into Theatre At Home is now claiming the stock and is moving it to what he is describing as a “Secure” location under the control of administrators, the only problem is that suppliers have not been told where the secure location is or who is the administrator.
According, suppliers who turned up at the store to collect stock, they were denied access with Danny Assabgy (Seen below), the CEO of Sydney-based Hudson Homes and Investment Company Equiti who was at the store last Friday claiming the stock as his.
At one stage two men who were described as “people you don’t mess with” turned up demanding stock. One claimed to ChannelNews that he was owed $90,000, another claimed he was owed $100K and later an Asian national claimed he was out of pocket for $55,000.
After initially getting some stock, the men came back with a van and the police were called.
When executives from Westan, the distributor of brands such as Focal & Naim, Klipsch and Pioneer turned up they claim that they had a discussion with Assabgy who claimed that “He begged to differ” after Westan executives claimed that the stock belonged to them.
ChannelNews has been told the debt is “close to $20 million dollars”.
Both Synergy Audio and Audio Active have been told that the stock was being moved to a secure location because of the risks associated with the North Parramatta location of the Lifestyle store.
Earlier today we contacted Assabgy, he claimed that he would come back to us as he was “tied up with administrators and lawyers.” He told us “we need to be patient.”
Lists of Goods being stripped from the Lifestyle Store
When we asked ‘who are the administrators” we got no reply.
The issue for suppliers is that some stock is still within the invoiced period. Other stock that was supplied on consignment appears to have already been moved from the store.
At one stage people removing stock dropped two lists of products that we were told were being singled out to be removed.
Records show that the former CEO of the business Vinod Christie David who is now telling suppliers that he has been “conned” after attempting to restructure the business went bankrupt with the first Lifestyle Store in mid-2005.
The shop was located at Shop L1, Level 1 330 Church Street Parramatta.
Their current Lifestyle business was started in in May 2005, we also understand that executives of the business who have been accused of trading while insolvent also had problems with businesses, they were running back in the late 1990’s.
According to several suppliers who have stock tied up in the store, they are concerned that Assabgy will end up being the sole beneficiary of the assets as he appears to be the only “secure creditor” after a major restructure of the business some weeks ago.
Key to what is happening is the establishment of ROQO Pty Ltd which ASIC documentation indicates is linked with EQUITI Property Pty Ltd a business linked with Danny Assabgy who has told ChannelNews that he wants to recover “The millions” he put into Theatre At Home.
