Genius Childcare boss fined for handling proceeds of crime as investigators chase missing millions
Melbourne Magistrates' Court fined Darren Misquitta $4000 and recorded no conviction after the 41-year-old businessman pleaded guilty to one count of dealing in the proceeds of crime. Two charges of using a false document were dropped.
But the Gold Coast-based entrepreneur's legal woes may be just beginning. Administrators of companies in his failed business empire – whose known debts now top $115 million – allege various breaches of corporation laws by Misquitta when he was running Genius and other enterprises.
Corporate investigators are still trying to trace the whereabouts of tens of millions of dollars moved out of one of the companies before it went broke.
The court accepted on Thursday that no evidence of deliberate fraudulent activity had been found against Misquitta after he took receipt of $120,000 from a client of his business consultancy in 2019. The money had turned out to be the proceeds of a fraudulently obtained bank loan.
Before releasing him without conviction and imposing the fine, Magistrate Patrick Allen also took into account that Misquitta had no criminal record.
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The businessman's chain of 39 Genius childcare centres around the country collapsed in June, leaving workers, creditors and tax authorities chasing unpaid wages, super and business debts. He was declared bankrupt last month.
The administration processes of the various companies behind the group are still playing out, but two of the insolvency practitioners handling the wind-ups say they have forwarded allegations of potentially criminal conduct by Misquitta in his business dealings to corporate regulator ASIC.
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