The sale of Doughnut Time has fallen over at the eleventh hour, after troubled entrepreneur Damian Griffiths refused to sign over the trademark to the company’s former CEO and managing director Dan Strachotta, the liquidation-workers-claim-taxpayer-compo/9541864″>ABC reports.

The business will now be liquidated, despite Strachotta’s intentions to turn it around. The dessert chain went into voluntary administration on Friday and has appointed Michael Caspaney, the principal of Menzies Advisory, as its liquidator.

Workers, who according to the ABC are owed an estimated $200,000 in unpaid wages, found out the news via an email from management just before the weekend.

“Today has been the last day of Doughnut Time,” Victoria state manager Vanessa Gaddi-Chmielewski wrote in an email supplied to the ABC. “I just received news from Dan [Strachotta] that the deal with the new company has been blocked by Damian.

“As a result, the entire company will go into liquidation — including the stores that Dan was supposed to take over.”

Broadsheet can confirm that all Doughnut Time stores are now closed. Former employees have been unsuccessful in contacting either Griffiths or Strachotta. Broadsheet tonight reached out to Doughnut Time representatives via email, but had not received…