Dion Perdikoyiannis, whose Australian business, Unleash Solar, collapsed and left a plethora of unpaid subcontractors, has set up Unleash Solar USA. According to Perdikoyiannis himself, he has neither assets nor cash and the $2 million he took from Adelaide-based Unleash Solar can be paid back only if the company he put up in America prospers.
Complaints have reached the Western and South Australia Consumer Affairs office, two of the biggest markets of Unleash Solar. Disgruntled subcontractors heard from Unleash Solar staff that Perdiokoyiannis reportedly engaged in poker games which lasted all night, Las Vegas weekend trips, and the privilege of corporate boxes at 36ers’ Adelaid Arena, Hindmarsh Stadium, and Staples Centre, home of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team in California.
It is Possible to Start a New Business Even Without Assets or a Bank Account?
When Unleash Solar collapsed, it left over 200 Australian households in the dark about their solar energy contracts and 109 subcontractors clamouring for their $5.7 million which Unleash Solar apparently owed them. Cobb Co, Unleash Solar’s closest rival, has been negotiating to meet Unleash Solar’s undelivered installations of solar panels and their claims and warranties. Some subcontractors reported seeing Perdikoyiannis in a red Ferrari, albeit a late model, but he has denied this, admitting only to ownership of a Mercedes Benz.
Prior to its redesign, Unleash Solar USA’s website said what its Australian counterpart did before it came tumbling down: Unleash Solar is “one of the fastest growing” solar energy companies. Unleash Solar USA is based in the California city of Irvine, with 52,000 square feet of office space for 400 employees and sublets. Perdikoyiannis has refused to give the reasons for the departure of three senior personnel in February 2013 and has maintained that he neither owns any assets or money in the bank.
Where is the Money?
According to Robert Pedicini, a solar installer based in Adelaide, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC), which is the regulatory body of corporations, should “step up” because “it is not about insolvent trading” but “about using Australian money to set up a new venture” – Unleash Solar USA – “in a new country” – America – “and leaving it to burn” and people like him to burn as well. Unleash Solar owes Pedicini, who had three weeks to pay back his creditors or risk his Sunrise Solar company from being liquidated, $320,000. Pedicini had 16 jobs left undone when Perdikoyiannis took off.
Meanwhile, the ASIC had ruled out its own administrator Austin Taylor’s request for an investigation of Perdikoyiannis on charges of insolvent trading. The ASIC has reviewed Unleash Solar’s records in the wake of complaints from consumers ranging from faulty inverters of solar panels to demands for refunds. When Perdikoyiannis’ brother Spiro, a senior manager at the defunct Unleash Solar and who has since become unemployed, was asked where the money that the company had made went, he insisted he does not know because he never had access to the financial records of Unleash Solar at any given point in time.
