Victoria
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Victoria News

Stiffed dairy farmers want answers

Nino Bucci
  • 84 reading now

Antonio Esposito does not look like a man who has worked with dairy farmers for the past two decades.

He spends summers on his yacht on the Gold Coast, lives in a $10 million mansion in Brighton, and is known for his lavish parties, including his daughter's christening, which featured a performance by Delta Goodrem.

Up Next

'Car bomb' explodes in Canberra

null
Video duration
00:36

More National News Videos

null
Video duration
01:55

A dairy farmers plea to the government
null
Video duration
00:36

'Car bomb' explodes in Canberra
null
Video duration
02:04

Ethanol burner victim speaks out
null
Video duration
01:07

Melbourne Metro tunnel update
null
Video duration
01:26

Guarding against truck attacks
More videos

A dairy farmers plea to the government

In October dairy farmers told a Senate committee about the the 'devaluing' of the dairy industry and the toll it's taking on their families and livelihoods.

And that is why the farmers owed millions of dollars for milk supplied to Mr Esposito's National Dairy Products have urged the corporate watchdog to forensically audit his assets. They wonder how  he can maintain his flamboyant lifestyle and enviable property portfolio yet not have the money to pay them.

Mr Esposito, known as Tony, bought milk from farmers to supply manufacturers of milk-based products.

He said his assets are not linked to the dairy brokering company, and claims he has fought for dairy farmers to be paid more in the midst of supermarket price wars and multinationals dropping their prices.

The generous rates he paid farmers for milk, he believes, ultimately sunk the company, as the market did not recover as he expected, leaving him unable to pay them what he promised.

Advertisement

The company was incorporated in April last year and placed into administration on November 17.

On Wednesday, in a Bourke Street boardroom, another chapter will be written.

Either the creditors of NDP, who are owed more than $4.3 million, will vote to approve a last-ditch bid to keep the company afloat, or will push for liquidation, which could reveal more about where their money has gone.

Should the company stay afloat and be managed by administrators Deloitte, unsecured creditors – which include all the farmers – could be paid as little as 5¢ in the dollar.

The creditors include dairy farmers from across Victoria, predominantly the south-west and Gippsland, who each have claims ranging from a few thousand dollars to as much as $1.1 million.

Alex Robertson and his brother Robert supplied milk to Mr Esposito's former company, United Dairy Power, before he sold it for $70 million to a Hong Kong-based company.

When he approached them early last year about his new venture, they helped him recruit other farmers.

Soon after, Mr Esposito stopped paying his bill.

"Pretty much since December last year, every month, we were ringing Tony to beg for money," Mr Robertson said.

"By October, we were really yelling and screaming."

When they left NDP on November 11, claiming they were owed $675,000, they were one of the first farms to do so. Others soon followed.

These farmers included Fiona and Lynden Plant, who milk 900 cows at two dairies in Riverslea, north-east of Sale.

She said it had been an awful year for dairy farmers, given the retrospective price cuts, and that the failure of NDP had only made it worse.

She said NDP owed them $558,000.

Ms Plant said she hoped a liquidation would explain why Mr Esposito was able to convert an $8 million investment he made in the company to a loan.

He then claimed payments of more than $3.3 million from the company as repayment, while the company he founded all but collapsed.

Company statements indicate that "TE Expenses" – understood to stand for Tony Esposito – accounted for $538,000 in three months from July to September alone.

"Things might have been tight, but if Tony hadn't have taken $3.3 million out of the business, it would have survived," Ms Plant said.

The creditors report prepared by Deloitte finds that Mr Esposito, by virtue of the loan, is the largest unsecured creditor.

"We have not yet formally verified the quantum of this debt, or its treatment as a "debt" of the company," the report finds.

The report issued last week also found that Mr Esposito and his wife Violetta Esposito could have breached multiple sections of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Act.

These possible breaches include trading while insolvent, as it appears NDP has been since last December.

Mr Esposito said he had nothing to hide..

"I'm proud of what I've done for farmers over the years and I hold my head up."