Chris Stoddard, CSDM director
Debts of almost £1.4m remain unpaid more than a year after the organisation went into administration, insolvency practitioner says
The fundraising agency CSDM has not made payments to any of its creditors more than a year after it went into administration and has now gone into voluntary liquidation, according to the insolvency practitioner handling the case.
The agency, which has worked for charities including Children with Cystic Fibrosis Dream Holidays, the World Medical Fund and the African Children’s Fund, went into administration in June 2010.
CSDM transferred its assets to two new companies and issued a statement at the time saying "it is envisaged that all creditors will be paid in full".
When it went into administration it owed almost £1.4m to creditors; £740,282 of this was owed to companies of which Chris Stoddard, CSDM’s director, was also a director.
One of the creditors, who asked not to be named, told Third Sector: "I have abandoned all hope that we will ever be paid. I just don't think the money is there. I think most of the creditors feel the same."
Adam Jordan, the insolvency practitioner handling the case at the administrators firm Rimes & Co, told Third Sector CSDM had not made any payments to its creditors since it went into administration. None of the creditors are charities.
Jordan said the firm had gone into voluntary liquidation on 15 June 2011 because the 12-month time limit on being in administration had expired. He said it did not have a legal obligation to pay its creditors.
Asked whether he thought CSDM would pay the creditors in full, he said: "There are matters that have yet to be resolved and it will depend on the outcome of these." He declined to give any further details.
In a statement, Stoddard said the liquidation process was a procedural matter. "As such, the appointed liquidators are responsible for determining the exact payment process for legitimate creditors, further to the approved insolvency plan that was agreed at the creditors’ meeting last August," he said.
"The due diligence of the liquidators, in the interests of the creditors, means this process is currently continuing and we are therefore unable to provide any further comment at this stage. However, we will continue to cooperate fully with the liquidators throughout this process."
