The Federal Court has found iSignthis Ltd, now known as Southern Cross Payments Ltd, engaged in a number of contraventions of the law between 2018 and 2020.The Court found iSignthis:
- engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by representing on 3 August 2018 that less than 15% of the company’s total revenue in the fourth quarter to 30 June 2018 was from one-off or set-up fees (one-off revenue representation);
- failed to disclose from 3 August 2018 that in the fourth quarter to 30 June 2018 it had recognised approximately $3 million in one-off and non-recurring revenue and had incurred approximately $2.85 million in one-off costs,
- failed to disclose from 12 May 2020 that VISA had terminated its relationship with iSignthis and failed to disclose VISA’s reasons for termination.
The Court found Mr Karantzis:
- failed to exercise his powers and discharge his duties with reasonable care and diligence;
- was involved in the failure of iSignthis to comply with its continuous disclosure obligations regarding the recognition of revenues and costs in 2018;
- failed to take reasonable steps to ensure information that he gave to the ASX regarding the termination by VISA was not false or misleading.
