Petrol Company Settles Environmental Contamination Case for $2 Million After Collapse
Zoya Investments, a petrol station network operator, has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit over environmental contamination at a Central Coast site that was supposed to become a hospital. The company's former directors were accused of selling off assets before the company's collapse in April 2024, though they deny wrongdoing. The settlement leaves creditors recovering only cents on the dollar, with one developer receiving just $300,000 of the $9.3 million it was owed.
Zoya Investments, which operated petrol stations across multiple Australian states, entered liquidation in April 2024 after a service station in Kanwal, NSW leaked contamination onto adjacent land owned by developer Seaforth Securities. Seaforth had been planning to sell the land for a hospital development but was unable to proceed due to the contamination. The company's liquidator pursued Federal Court proceedings against former directors Rizwan Rana and Satwinder Singh, alleging they had sold company properties to family members and used company funds for personal purchases before the collapse. The directors denied wrongdoing, stating assets were sold to pay debts and that personal loans were repaid. Rather than proceed to trial, the liquidator accepted a $2 million settlement offer, which creditors including Seaforth and the Australian Tax Office (owed over $4 million) will share after legal fees. Seaforth ultimately received approximately $300,000 of its $9.3 million claim, while the contaminated land remains unusable.
What's missing
The article does not specify the current status or timeline for remediation of the contaminated Kanwal site beyond noting that the EPA issued a clean-up notice to RAS Kanwal Group in September 2024. The full extent of environmental contamination and remediation costs is not detailed.
What different sources said
- ABC AustraliaCenter
Petrol moguls pay $2m after empire collapses, land contaminated
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