March 2001, the board of HIH appointed a provisional liquidator to take control of HIH and 17 of its controlled entities. The board hoped this would give HIH time to review its operations and assess its financial position. On the same day, HIH was to announce its first-half result for the six months to 31 December 2000. The announcement had already been delayed once and rumours suggested that HIH's first-half result was a loss of $100 million. This figure quickly ballooned to $200 million, and then $300 million. Although the result was never announced, when Tony McGrath announced his appointment as provisional liquidator he estimated that HIH had lost over $800 million over the six months to 31 December 2000. He attributed the HIH company failures to rapid expansion, unsupervised delegation of authority, extensive and complex reinsurance arrangements, under-pricing, reserve problems, false reports, reckless management, incompetence, fraud, greed, and self-dealing. Formal winding-up orders were made on 27 August 2001. By then, HIH liquidators estimated the deficiency of the group to be between $3.6 billion and $5.3 billion. The demise of HIH was the largest corporate failure in Australia's history. HIH insurance is currently in run–off, which means it is managing its outstanding claims and not writing any new business. On 11April 2011 the provisional liquidator said that it could be up to 10 years before all creditors are paid. Royal Commission On 21May 2001 Prime Minister John Howard announced that a Royal Commission would be established to inquire into the company's collapse. Justice Neville John Owen headed the Royal Commission, which tabled its report to Parliament on 16 April 2003. The findings of the Royal Commission were available on the HIH Royal Commission web site which has been archived by the National Library of Australia. Criminal charges and sentences Adler pleads guilty Former HIH director Rodney Adler was sentenced on 14 April 2005 to four-and-a-half years in prison, with a non-parole period of two-and-a-half years. Adler's sentence came after pleading guilty on 16 February 2005 to four criminal charges, which included: two counts of disseminating information knowing it was false one count of obtaining money by false or misleading statements one count of being intentionally dishonest and failing to discharge his duties as a director in good faith and in the best interests of the company The sentence was a lenient one, since the judge accepted the defendant's plea of