Customers have been urged to keep their bookings at one of Canberra's most exclusive restaurants after it went into administration in the wake of its owner being jailed for using it to launder drug money.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission records show insolvency and restructuring experts Slaven Torline took over J Mussillon Pty Ltd, which trades as Courgette Restaurant, on Wednesday.
One of the firm's partners, Aaron Torline, told The Canberra Times he had been appointed an external administrator because the Australian Taxation Office had instituted debt recovery proceedings.
Speaking less than two hours after his appointment, Mr Torline said he was not yet sure how much money Courgette owed the tax office because there were "some outstanding returns to be lodged".
Asked whether his appointment was linked to Courgette's owner and acclaimed chef, James Daniel Mussillon, being jailed recently by the ACT Supreme Court, Mr Torline said that was a "separate" issue.
He said it was "business at usual" at Courgette and "the restaurant's not going anywhere" despite its tax woes.
"We encourage people to keep their bookings and support the restaurant," Mr Torline said.
During Mussillon's criminal proceedings, the courts heard the chef employed 18 people at Courgette.
"There's no intention to get rid of staff at this stage," Mr Torline said on Wednesday, describing the business as one that simply required "restructuring" to clear its tax debts.
"There's certainly a viable business there."
Courgette's website was displaying an error message at stages on Wednesday afternoon, but Mr Torline said it "hasn't been brought down by us" and the issue appeared to be a technical one.
The restaurant's future has been the subject of uncertainty since Mussillon, 51, was incarcerated earlier this month for money laundering, perjury, fraud, making false evidence and general dishonesty.
The celebrated chef, who marketed the modern European eatery in Civic as "seriously luxurious", admitted using it to launder more than $360,000 from a cannabis trafficking enterprise over five years.
He did so by receiving dirty cash from a drug dealer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, then paying it back to the man as "wages" between 2016 and 2021.
Because the drug dealer was on Courgette's books for the purpose of making this arrangement appear legitimate, the federal government paid Mussillon $31,900 in JobKeeper subsidies he should never have received during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mussillon's other crimes included lying to a court about employing the cannabis dealer in order to help the man secure bail on unrelated charges, and misleading police about the origins of drug money.
Justice David Mossop, who reserved particular condemnation for Mussillon's "brazen and apparently enthusiastic lies", ultimately sentenced the Watson resident to three years and 11 months in jail.
He ordered Mussillon to serve 12 months behind bars before the rest of the term is suspended.
Given Mussillon had already spent some seven-and-a-half months remanded in custody following his arrest in 2021, he will be released from the Alexander Maconochie Centre in late August.
