Custodian Life Creditors committee push to fire Deloitte liquidators
A major revolt is unfolding in the liquidation of Custodian Life, as the company’s Creditors’ Committee has issued a scathing briefing pack calling for the immediate removal of the joint provisional liquidators from Deloitte.
The committee, representing more than 2,000 policyholders and creditors, is seeking to oust liquidators John Johnston and Marcin Czarnocki, citing a tenure they describe as “disastrous” and marked by “strategic incompetence”.
At the heart of the creditors’ grievance is the staggering cost of the liquidation process. According to the briefing pack, Deloitte and their legal counsel have billed the estate over $5.8 million USD in just over two years. Despite these “astronomical fees,” the committee asserts that the liquidators have returned absolutely nothing to creditors.
Furthermore, the liquidators are accused of failing to perform basic duties, such as securing the company’s data from former director Joakim Samuelsson.
The Creditors’ Committee, having observed the liquidators’ actions and inactions for 17 months, has codified their complaints into what they call the “6 Pillars of Failure”:
Incompetence
Negligence
Lack of Professional Courage
Obstructive Behavior and Lack of Prior Consultation
Lack of Empathy for Creditors
Astronomical Fees
The situation has taken a controversial turn involving the legal representation of the Creditors’ Committee. The committee is currently represented by ASW Law, a firm founded by Rod Attride-Stirling.
Attride-Stirling previously served as the Chair of the Insurance Appeals Tribunal in 2022. During that time, he presided over Custodian Life’s appeal against the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), which argued that the BMA’s actions were illegal. Critics point out that Attride-Stirling failed to dismiss the BMA’s actions despite the authority’s failure to respond within the statutory 28-day window—a delay that lasted nearly a year.
The briefing suggests a deeper conflict, noting that Attride-Stirling and the BMA officer acting against Custodian Life, Davis-Crockwell, were “semi-contemporaneous law students” at the University of Buckingham. These links have led to public suspicions of collusion regarding the events that originally forced Custodian Life into a winding-up petition.
As the legal battle intensifies, observers note that “the knives are out in Bermuda” while 2,000 creditors remain in limbo, waiting for a resolution to a liquidation process they claim has prioritized professional fees over policyholder recovery.