Newcastle accountant Paul Siderovski's wife Valentina wipes $3.2 million company debt by offering creditors $160,000

Valentina Siderovski was the sole director of YA Aust, formerly known as Yogurtland Administration, and Val S Investments, trustee for the YA Aust Unit Trust, which were both placed in the hands of administrator Andrew Blundell, of Cathro and Partners, in December last year.

The companies were behind Yogurtland Australia that permanently closed its doors in March last year, leaving about 200 employees out of work from 11 stores on the same day as the JobKeeper employee subsidy came to an end.

At the time, Mr Siderovski, a Tony Robbins convert and business motivational speaker who had grand visions of opening up to 50 Yogurtland stores when he brought the concept to Australia in 2013, blamed the collapse of the self-serve frozen yoghurt chain on the COVID-19 pandemic.

The administrators put the deal to creditors, the Australian Tax Office, Mrs Siderovski and two of her other companies, for the tax office to accept about 10 cents in the dollar in full satisfaction of the $1.395 million it claimed it was owed.

Mrs Siderovski claimed she was owed $1.7 million and her companies Benco Holdings and Psomi Investments, which were set up three days before YA Aust and Val S Investments were placed in voluntary administration in December last year, claimed a combined debt of $173,297.

The related entities and Mrs Siderovski agreed not to receive payment under the Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA).

The deal effectively wiped out Mrs Siderovski's companies $3.2 million debt, including the $1.395 million owed to the tax office.

The collapse of Yogurtland Australia, that had three corporate stores in the Hunter, followed a mutiny from all franchisees several years ago after stores failed to perform as expected.

The Newcastle Herald revealed in 2019 how Yogurtland Australia gouged its franchisees by inflating costs for their stores, selling used yoghurt machines from failed corporate stores for almost double the cost of new ones.

At the time Mr Siderovski said Yogurtland made no profit from the shop fitouts.

Four couples signed on as franchisees and opted out of their struggling stores amid claims of large financial losses.

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