EXCLUSIVE:Fuji Xerox Companies Placed Under Administration

Several businesses associated with scandal plagued Fuji Xerox have been placed into ‘External Administration”.

According to Australian Insolvency records, Fuji Xerox (Sales) Pty Ltd, Fuji Xerox Australia Bpo Pty Ltd, Fuji Xerox Bpo Pty Ltd and the Fuji Xerox owned Upstream Print Solutions Australia Pty Ltd along with Bluechip Business Consulting Pty Ltd, have been placed into External Administration as the Company faces up to a fight over missing assets including millions of dollars that are now the subject of a fight between former management and Australian and New Zealand Companies owned by the Japanese Group.

At this stage, no reason has been given for the appointment of external administrators in Canberra other than a restructuring of Fuji Xerox businesses.

Back in 2010 the Australian operation of Fuji Xerox acquired Upstream Print Solutions; this quickly became an issue with their solution provider partners as the big print Company moved to compete with their own partners.

Then earlier this year Fuji Xerox Australia launched legal action in the Federal Court against two former executives following an accounting scandal that is believed to have bought the Australian operation undone.

ASIC lists several of the Fuji Xerox entities as above.

The latest action is against former managing director Neil Whittaker and involves the operations of Fuji Xerox’s New Zealand operation that is currently struggling.

Fuji Xerox New Zealand launched the action against former senior executives Gavin Pollard, Mark Allright and Whittaker what is not known is whether the case will still go ahead in light of the move to liquidate several business operations.

In 2017, Fuji Xerox parent Fujifilm Holdings announced a loss of NZ$284 million this later blew out to NZ$472 million after more losses were uncovered in the Australian operation that has now been placed into liquidation.

Action has also been taken against Whittaker, in the Federal Court of Australia by the Fuji Xerox’s local Australian business.
Also named in the Federal Court filings is Devlin Bell, who was Fuji Xerox Australia’s CFO and business services executive general manager between 2013 and 2017.

Also singled out is Ernst & Young (EY), the Companies auditors for the 2015 and 2016 financial years along with E. A. Lang, who was a partner of EY at the time.

It is claimed that the financial reports prepared by Ernst & Young did not give a true and fair view of the financial position and performance of Fuji Xerox Australia.

Fuji Xerox Australia’s parent company is Fujifilm Holdings who at this stage have not commented on the move to external management.

From the commencement of his role as CEO of FXA [Fuji Xerox Australia], Mr Whittaker promoted or acquiesced a culture which placed an unreasonable emphasis on recording profit and inadequate concern for the accuracy or underlying commercial reality of what was being recorded,” Fuji Xerox claimed in its legal action.

According t court documents, Fuji Xerox is now seeking relief against Whittaker and Bell, claiming that its financial damage includes the A$3.6 million paid to Fuji Xerox Australia employees at the time, which would not have been paid had the “misstated” revenue not been reported.

Additionally, the company claims damage in the form of the A$2.6 million it spent paying advisory firm KPMG to investigate the alleged accounting irregularities.
Ernst & Young (EY) was added to the case because, according to Fuji Xerox Australia, the audit carried out by EY and its partner, Lang, were allegedly “misleading or deceptive, or likely to mislead or deceive”.

As such, Fuji Xerox alleges that EY breached its retainer audit obligations and duties of care in relation to the audit of the 2015 and 2016 audits.

The Fuji Xerox web site states that in order to maintain efficient and cost-effective business administration of our companies in Australia, we assessed our registered entities, and decided to liquidate some of them.

The following entities have been placed into liquidation as of 31st July 2020.

Fuji Xerox (Sales) Pty. Limited A.C.N. 001 419 790
Fuji Xerox Australia BPO Pty Limited A.C.N. 092 872 501
Fuji Xerox BPO Pty Limited A.C.N. 105 017 481
Enhanced Processing Technologies Pty Ltd A.C.N. 103 188 478
Upstream Print Solutions Australia Pty Ltd A.C.N. 137 943 849 & Upstream Print Solutions Holdings Pty Ltd A.C.N. 137 235 879
Bluechip Business Consulting Pty Ltd A.C.N. 122 438 975

These companies were dormant companies and do not relate to the sales or operations of Fuji Xerox Australia (FXA), Upstream or related finance companies.

The four remaining operating entities include:

Fuji Xerox Australia Pty Ltd
Fuji Xerox Finance Limited
Upstream Solutions Pty Ltd
Upstream Finance Pty Ltd