The Department of Inland Revenue (IRD) application to liquidate the company associated with a $50 million, 38ha luxury development next to Walter Peak Station on Lake Wakatipu was granted on April 22 in the Auckland High Court.
However, a second application, for Mr Nielsen's Queenstown Alpine Developments Ltd to be wound up, was withdrawn because the property associated with it - a two-storey retail and office building in Earl St - sold in a mortgagee sale in December.
The WPDL company liquidation will be in the hands of Deloitte partner David Vance, but he could do little until the receivership, handled by Anthony McCullagh and Steve Lawrence of PKF Corporate Recovery and Insolvency Ltd (PKF), was "finished or nearly finished".
In the meantime, the receivers will maintain control of the assets while they try to recover WPDL's $20.6 million debt to its finance company and first secured creditor - Strategic Finance.
Efforts by PKF since December to recoup Strategic's money through the sale of the land have not been successful and, in the meantime, the finance company has been left with the upkeep of extensive planting obligations under the resource consent.
The liquidation was because of unpaid GST and penalties of $709,569.26.
Mr Vance did not believe the sale of the land would cover the Strategic debt.
Mr Vance said "a number of companies" connected to Mr Nielsen and his brother and former business partner, Greg Nielsen, had been placed in liquidation.
Deloitte is handling seven companies of which one or both brothers were directors and shareholders, but Mr Vance was not optimistic the process would result in a payout for the IRD.
"There is a net loss. This company is just one of many we are dealing with that the directors and shareholders are the Nielsen brothers," he said.
While he would not confirm the total debt being sought across the companies, Mr Vance said the IRD was the petitioning creditor in all the liquidations.
He said the high profile of the brothers, combined with the well-reported breakdown of their personal and professional relationship and the large number of companies they controlled, made the task ahead more difficult.
The fact Mr Rod Nielsen seems to have relocated to Las Vegas was another difficulty.
"It adds to the complexity of any liquidation," he said.
