Ann: Commences Federal Court Action against ASX, page-501

This is my first post on ISX, but I read these threads closely. I bought into ISX on the 21 June 2019 and averaged up to an entry price now sitting around $1.10.

Firstly, thank you to the many excellent and insightful posters. I have been very grateful for your research, level of detail, communication and time. I have several posters on ignore – I have neither the time nor interest in wading through unrelenting, rubbish posts. Some posters with contrary views are reasonable - it doesn’t take long to work out who contributes to a healthy discussion and who doesn’t. Thank you to the many posters who call out the loose cannons - the nefarious posters with suspect motivations.

Secondly, much has happened over the past 2 months that warrants comment. ISX initiating court action against the ASX is unprecedented. And bold.

But what other option was available to ISX? As summarised by @hotmix87 , “ISX were denied:
• the right to be heard before suspension,
• the right to know the accusation and the accuser,
• procedural fairness,
• due process and natural justice, and,
• to cap it off, have no recourse to appeal”.

The document ISX lodged with the court is an astounding record and raises many further concerns. The ASX have:
• unfairly applied their regulatory powers (to ISX and not, for example, WESTPAC),
• refused to disclose or acknowledge persons with conflict of interests, or ASX products in competition with ISX,
• demanded unreasonably wide-ranging and detailed, commercially sensitive, material from ISX including customer details and contracts,
• refused to maintain the confidentiality of this material, even when specifically instructed to do so.

It is this last dot point that I find particularly troublesome, and has lead me to circle back to the start of this saga and again ask - who initiated, and benefited from, the initial OM report?

Up until now, I have assumed the answer to this question was most likely your ‘every-day market manipulation’ kind of answer, that is a network of ‘investment advisers’, media outlets and short sellers have benefited by manipulating the ISX share price. Although illegal, it is nothing personal or targeted and seems to happen all-too-regularly in our market.

But now I wonder… what if it is more than just wanting to manipulate the SP? What if the initial ASX suspension was initiated from within ASX? What if one or more very fine people of the ASX wanted a reason to suspend ISX and asked OM to line up the dominoes?

Could the level of stench in our market regulator really be that bad? Surely not…

The depth of unethical, illegal and dishonest behaviour in some people does not surprise me anymore. I don’t know what has happened here, but the facts, inconsistencies, conflicts-of-interest and developments over the past few months regarding the suspension of ISX are deeply concerning. Even if my imagination is misguided, and a person or persons within ASX had nothing to do with the impetus behind OM releasing their initial report, the simple fact that a reasonable person (at least I think I am reasonable…) imagines such a possibility, says something is wrong with our system.

It seems absurd to place our trust in one publicly listed company to impartially regulate all other publicly listed companies. What is their highest purpose – to ensure a regulated, fair and effective market or to maximise profit for their shareholders? Blind Freddy can see that these 2 goals may sometimes be at odds with each other. One only has to consider BOTS and high-frequency trades to wonder which of these two goals (fair market vs profit) the ASX has gravitated towards.

Even if the reality is the ASX is squeaky-clean of any wrong-doing and the highest model of financial regulation in our markets, perceptions of an unfair, manipulated, corrupt market regulator cannot be allowed to continue.

Let us hope that a judicial review into the ASX’s suspension of ISX and the specific processes, communication, and regulatory powers applied in this case opens up enough of this can of worms to lead to a review of the whole system. Regardless of the finding for or against ISX, this unprecedented case surely has implications that go beyond just this scenario.

I am forever hopeful… but not naive and will not be surprised either way. Truth and justice do not always win, but gee I enjoy it when David takes on Goliath and has a really good crack at it.

So finally, I want to thank ISX, JK and the team, for having a go. It is a pleasure to be part owner of a business with innovative, strategic, new ways of thinking, mixed with good amount of old-fashioned decency and courage. Well done.