Justice Ashley Black’s scathing judgement in the 1derful case lets the defendants, Fletch Capital, Craig Seymour and Michael Birch off the hook in one way.
Rather than refer Fletch, Seymour and Birch to ASIC for multiple breaches of the Corporations Law, Black has left it to the plaintiffs and the media to alert the corporate regulator to their wrongdoing.
“It appears that Seymour and Birch are active participants in the Australian financial services or Australian credit industries. I raised with each of them, at the close of their cross-examination, the possibility that findings might be made, inter alia, that they had not acted honestly or in accordance with their moral obligations” Black wrote.
“Findings of that kind would be relevant to the question whether a banning order could or should be made by ASIC in respect of either of them.
“I have considered the question whether this judgment should be referred to ASIC and allowed the parties an opportunity to be heard in that regard. I have ultimately concluded that it is not necessary to do where the judgment, the affidavits that were read and the evidence that was tendered are now all matters of public record.”