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Pesutto avoids bankruptcy after paying Deeming $2.3 million

Pesutto avoids bankruptcy after paying Deeming $2.3 million

Former Victorian Opposition leader John Pesutto has cleared his $2.3 million debt owed to colleague Moira Deeming after her successful defamation claim against him.
A Liberal Party entity, Vapold, has paid Deeming $1.55 million on Thursday morning – in line with a decision by the party's administrative committee to loan the money to Pesutto – with Pessuto providing the rest from his own fundraising.
The payments, confirmed by two sources unauthorised to publicly discuss them, remove any prospect of a mooted court challenge to Vapold making the loan and defuses a crisis that had threatened to force Pesutto into bankruptcy and out of parliament.
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Deeming's defamation case, in which she successfully sued Pesutto for making the false inference that she associated with neo-Nazis, was funded by NSW property developer Grugeon Hilton.
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