Joel Macdonald and Bane Hunter (GetSwift)
GetSwift is set to face court again, this time in a proceeding brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The ASIC has commenced proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia in Melbourne against the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed business and its directors Bane Hunter and Joel Macdonald.
ASIC alleges that software-as-a-service (SaaS) logistics vendor made representations in a series of ASX announcements relating to client agreements, between February 2017 and December 2017 that were misleading and that it failed to notify the ASX of material information in relation to these client agreements.
This follows three class actions that were already being brought against the company, with the Federal Court of Australia allowing only one of the three class actions to proceed, as of 20 November.
ASIC alleges that both directors were either involved in the failure of GetSwift to meet its obligations or failed to discharge their duties to GetSwift.
Specifically, ASIC is seeking declarations that GetSwift, Hunter and Macdonald contravened provisions of the Corporations Act; orders the company and directors pay penalties to the Commonwealth, and ultimately that both directors be prohibited from managing a corporation for such period as the court thinks fit.
The matter has been set down for a case management hearing on 1 March 2019.
In February 2018, GetSwift said it planned to contest a class action potentially worth up to $300 million alleging it misled shareholders about the nature of several price-sensitive contracts.
Furthermore, two class actions were announced against the company, one in March 2018 and the third one in April 2018.
Meanwhile, the company recently announced a US$4.5 million acquisition of two US-based companies, Colorado-based delivery management platform Delivery Biz Pro (DBP) and workforce scheduling provider, Scheduling+.
On 25 February, GetSwift told shareholders of ASIC's proceedings and said that after ASIC served the company with a notice to produce documents in February 2018 "the company has been cooperating fully with ASIC in relation to its investigations".
"The company, Mr Macdonald and Mr Hunter irrefutably deny the allegations made by ASIC and, collectively, will vigorously defend the proceedings."
ARN has contacted GetSwift for comment.
Article updated at 09:30AM on 25 February to include GetSwift announcement to shareholders.
