Investors will be asking the board and management of Axiom Properties why it failed to disclose its heavy loss in the Supreme Court of NSW three weeks ago, in a case in which the fintech founder Luke Bunbury and 1derful and 1derful Group were the plaintiffs.
As Banking Day reported yesterday, Bunbury and 1derful won hands down in a case that went to trial only recently, and in which Justice Ashley Black delivered judgement only two weeks after the conclusion of the trial.
Fletch Capital is a special purpose vehicle within Axiom, established only in the last year, and part of Axiom’s Payments Division.
“The group’s newly established Payments Division is expected to be a key driver of the company’s future earnings, underpinned by some major, key customer relationships with the potential to transform the profile of the Company’s current business model into a substantial, recurring revenue business through strategic investment and support of this division” Axiom bragged in its 2024 annual report.
Also in the annual report, Axiom told its shareholders it was “satisfied that [Bunbury’s] claim is without merit and will fail and intends to defend the proceeding vigorously and pursue full cost reimbursement if successful.”
In fact, so adverse were Justice Black’s findings on the wrongs of this case that Fletch – and thus Axiom – must pay exemplary damages to 1derful, alongside two other defendants.
ASIC will now be considering Fletch’s multiple breaches of the Corporations Law in relation to its participation in a conspiracy (among other forms of misconduct) to gain control over the 1derful’s debts and force 1derful into receivership.
Justice Black is now considering short orders filed by each side and may yet have to resolve the quantum of these exemplary damages, which was left open in the judgement.
Or will Fletch, and Axiom, and the other defendants (and conspirators), Craig Seymour and Michael Birch, take their chances on appeal?
Shares in Axiom Properties, a lightly-traded stock, fell four tenths of a cent, or 6.2 per cent, to 6.1 cents yesterday following reporting in Banking Day on the 1derful judgement.