The sense of impending crisis around Salim Mehajer's empire deepened on Monday, with a lender making the first moves toward winding up a string of family companies.

A Mehajer-controlled company, Sydney Constructions & Developments, was in the Supreme Court, bringing a case against financing company Reynolds Private Wealth.

The finance company's owner, Queensland entrepreneur Frank Reynolds, declined to comment. But it is believed that the lending company with steep interest rates had made moves against the Mehajer company over a claimed debt, seeking for it to pay up or face being wound up.

Sydney Constructions & Developments was asking the court to cancel that process, known as a "statutory demand order". That gives a company 21 days to make good on its debt, or face being presumed insolvent and then wound up.