Collapsed ISP's directors live on with new wireless company

Directors of ISP Zennet have continued trading a new business, Z1 Wholesale, two months after the former company was liquidated.

Zennet International – which traded as Fibre Waves – was ordered into liquidation on 6 July by IP security distributor Lan1.

According to ASIC, another company operated by Zennet director Evan Price, Fibre Waves Sunshine Coast, was also served a winding-up notice by advertising firm Go Transit.

CRN spoke to a Fibre Waves customer, the owner of a Sunshine Coast audio-video installation company, who claims she is owed $70,000 in undelivered goods and services.

The company initially contacted Fibre Waves to roll out a custom CRM, as well as supply modems, CCTV, cameras and VoIP products.

Fibre Waves instead delivered a free trial version of a generic CRM, and 150 faulty modems, the customer claimed.

CRN has attempted to contact Price via numerous phone numbers and email addresses given for Zennet, Fibre Waves and Z1 Wholesale, as well as via LinkedIn.

Track record

Fibre Waves was not the first failed company Z1 Wholesale’s directors have been involved with.

Evan Price was appointed director of Queensland telco Aussicom Installation in March 2014. The company went into liquidation four months later.

Records show that Zennet International took a 56 percent stake in the company, but according to a former Aussicom director, failed to pay the agreed $2 million for the shares.

 “We found out employees weren’t being paid, and [Price] blamed it on severely underestimating the cash flow requirements of [Aussicom],” the director told CRN.

“Resources and employees were transferred from Aussicom to Zennet, among other things that just shouldn’t have happened.”

Price has since registered Z1 Wholesale as a new business, which also advertises fixed wireless, internet, ethernet and voice services.

A number of offshore businesses were also registered by Price, including Z1 Wholesale branches in New Zealand and Europe.

On 6 May, Z1 Wholesale managed to land a spot on the government’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland (CCIQ) supplier list.

Becoming an accredited government supplier requires businesses to hand over profit and loss statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements for the past two years, despite Z1 Wholesale existing for less than a year.

In the absence of profit and loss statements, businesses can instead provide a cash assurance for satisfactory project completion.

CCIQ has been approached for comment.