Descon-Adcon Creditor Deal Cancelled After ATO Court Case
A deal proposed for the creditors of a group of collapsed construction companies belonging to Descon’s Danny Isaac has been struck down by the Federal Court of Australia.
A court case heard by Justice Cameron Moore last month—the outcome of which was published last week—dealt with a deal to wind down three Adcon Group companies.
The companies were closely associated with Descon, owned by Danny Isaac as the sole director. They collapsed in 2024.
What has emerged from the case files is a story of missing financial accounts—said to have been destroyed in the 2022 Brisbane floods— missing funds—including $108 million for PPE—and an absent director who has refused to work with administrators and is believed to have moved to Dubai.
Rescue deal after administrators called in
Tier 1 and 2 companies Adcon Vic, Adcon ACT and Adcon Logistics, collapsed in May 2024 and were placed in administration.
Administrators from Wexted Advisors and SV Administrators were appointed to the three companies.
A meeting of creditors was called to determine the future of the companies and a rescue deal in the form of a deed of company arrangement (DOCA) was struck.
The creditors voted for the deals in August 2024, each pushed through by the vote of one company, Busifund Pty Ltd.
Under the DOCA, Isaac was supposed to make contributions of $5 million as part of a pooled fund for certain creditors, funds of which were provided by Busifund, the court was told.
Busfund is based in New South Wales and has one director listed in ASIC accounts, Mark Kebblewhite.
The court said that Busifund’s support was “curious” and “somewhat odd” given that the deal would not benefit Busifund.
“The reason that Busifund would provide this money to Mr Isaac, and the relationship between Busifund and Mr Isaac, is not known to the Commissioner and is obscure,” court documents said.
However, a major creditor of the Adcon companies was the Australian Taxation Office, which was owed $11 million by the three companies—a small proportion of the total $238 million the ATO alleged it is owed by the wider Descon-Adcon Group.
The Adcon case
The Deputy Commissioner of Taxation brought the case to the Federal Court, filing its case in July 2025.
The Deputy Commissioner wanted the DOCA to be set aside, and the administrators, who had originally recommended against the arrangement, supported the ATO’s application.
Presiding Justice Moore heard that Isaac had failed to make contributions, and was thus in breach of the DOCA.
The quarterly instalment payable in September 2025 was late, and the quarterly instalments due in December 2025 and March 2026 have not been paid.
The ATO said that the court “should infer that the DOCA is being used as a vehicle to keep investigations and recovery action at bay”.
It argued that it was “contrary to public policy" to maintain the DOCA, and that there were issues for future liquidators investigate.
This included, it said, a $108-million allocation detailed in company accounts for property, plant and equipment that “disappeared without any adequate explanation”.
In a previous written statement, given that Isaac did not attend the hearing, the construction group boss said that “it is unlikely” that Adcon VIC ever had PPE of $108 million, given that there was no revenue to support the acquisition.
The Deed Administrators also asked the accountants of Adcon VIC for the books and records of the company. But they were informed that all of the company’s records had been destroyed in the Brisbane floods in 2022.
As a result of these factors, the ATO Commissioner wanted the DOCA terminated.
Isaac, also known as Sami Adib, left Australia in 2023 and has not returned or provided “any meaningful assistance”. The court said his whereabouts are unknown, but it is suspected he is living in Dubai.
His legal team pulled out of representing him two weeks before the case was heard.
The Federal Court order
No creditors, including Busifund, have objected to the commissioner’s application to scrap the DOCA, Justice Moore said.
Subsequently, the Federal Court ordered that the deed of company arrangement agreed in 2024 would be terminated.
There was potential for recovery action if the DOCA was removed, it said, and also greater powers for liquidators to investigate where funds had gone, which administrators did not have.
It wound up the Adcon companies, and appointed Wexted Advisory as liquidators of all three.
Descon Group, a developer and builder, collapsed in 2024 and was placed into liquidation by the Supreme Court of Queensland in May 2024.
Its massive tax bill was partially blamed, and creditors were reportedly owed more than $760 million.
Descon had in the preceding years had taken over a host of Gold Coast projects after the collapse of Condev in 2023, and splashed $70 million Northshore site in Hamilton in 2022.
Descon had also been involved in major civil infrastructure projects including Melbourne train stations at CBD North and Parkville (which was presided over by Adcon Vic), as well as towers in Sydney and Queensland, like the Polites joint venture La Mer on Main Beach (pictured at top).
The development of major projects, including a 30-storey South Brisbane residential apartment building, were also put in jeopardy by its collapse.
