Latest news with #businesscollapse
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Footy star Joel Macdonald reveals he turned to hallucinogenic drug after blowing $200million fortune in scandal that saw him slammed by top judge
Former AFL star Joel Macdonald has revealed why he turned to magic mushrooms after losing $200million following the dramatic collapse of his global tech business. MacDonald, 40, previously turned out for the Brisbane Lions and Melbourne Demons before turning his attention to the ill-fated GetSwift start-up in 2017. A luxurious lifestyle followed, before it all came crashing down, with a Federal Court judge stating the defender turned entrepreneur was focused on his bank balance, not 'his legal obligations as a director.' 'A few years ago I lost 200 was f---ing brutal,' Macdonald said in a recent YouTube interview. 'I was 30, I was on top of the world, I was one of Australia's youngest public company CEO's, first class (flights), best restaurants, young rich list and then BOOM! everything vanished.' Macdonald was ultimately was out of his depth, and in 2018 Get Swift's swift demise began. The Australian Securities Exchange suspended the company's trade over allegations Macdonald misled the market by overstating forecasts and failing to disclose the loss of major contracts. A record penalty of $15million followed in court, and Macdonald was also ordered to pay $1million in damages. Additionally, he was disqualified from managing corporations for 12 years. At the time, the court described GetSwift as a company that 'became a market darling because it adopted an unlawful public-relations-driven approach to corporate disclosure instigated and driven by those wielding power within the company.' Justice Michael Lee - who presided over the Brittany Higgins defamation trial - said Macdonald was trying to make money with 'little understanding or regard for his legal obligations as a director'. Macdonald admits his professional reputation was destroyed, and he turned to alcohol and anti-anxiety drugs as coping mechanisms. 'The rage I felt inside of me that it was all over was insane,' he said in the YouTube clip. 'There were dark moments when I just wanted to end it all. That was the only way I could see that the pain could go away....I don't wish that darkness on anyone.' A magic mushroom retreat, daily journaling, meditation and therapy followed, with Macdonald determined to become the best version of himself. And despite his wealth, Macdonald has conceded he wasn't happy at the height of his financial success - and now his focus is a freshly launched YouTube channel. 'If you're someone who's been beaten down, in a dark spot, rebuilding or just wants to have a massive crack on a global scale, then this channel is for you,' he says.
News.com.au
23-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Heartbroken': Brutal text sent to staff as company collapses
EXCLUSIVE About 140 people across Australia have been immediately sacked following the sudden collapse of Australia's largest distributor of second-hand office furniture. Staff at furniture company Egans received a text message on Friday morning telling them to attend a compulsory all-staff meeting, where they were told they no longer had jobs. 'Notice of important company announcement,' the text message read. 'Do not go to job site first.' In a statement to Director Andrew Egan said the company had faced 'pervasive cost increases' and a 'revenue slump' which was affecting 'every business in Australia'. The company has staff across NSW, Victoria and South Australia. 'Egans is a family business that has been developing a worlds (sic) best practice circular economy model for 30 years,' Mr Egan said in his statement. 'Universities and corporations across Australia have adopted our model and are devastated by todays news. 'Our staff have worked on this data-backed, fully resolved model for many decades. Like us, they are heartbroken. Mr Egan said that his company had saved two million kilograms of office furniture through their approach. 'Given there is no alternate model in the market, this is as difficult for our customers as it is for our staff. 'Our thoughts go out to the 140 staff and their families who are affected by this.' Staff had no warning about the collapse and were only first told about the decision to close the business during the all-staff meeting. Egans' main company website has already been scrubbed from the internet. Egans provided office fit-outs, disposal, storage and transportation of office furniture. It provided office equipment for the likes of the SA Government, the Fair Work Ombudsman and Adelaide University.
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Businessman who ran company with his glamorous WAG daughter and lost her partner Scott McTominay 'almost £1m' when it collapsed fights to save his £4m home
The father of Scott McTominay 's partner is fighting to save his £4m home from being seized after his business collapsed. Businessman Ashley Reading, 55, ran investment firm Fortress Capital Partners alongside his glamorous WAG daughter Cam Reading, 25, promoting annual returns of up to 18 per cent before collapsing into administration in 2023. The former Manchester United star, who now plays for Napoli, was one of the investors reported to be set to lose large sums due to the collapse of his girlfriend's father's business. The 28-year-old is understood to have ploughed £1million cash, plus £1.32million from his own company, into Fortress, with Boyzone singer Shane Lynch, 48, also said to have made a £730,000 investment in the firm. In March 2024, the company owed its 230 creditors a total of nearly £18million. The company borrowed money from its investors before lending it out at a higher rate to corporate entities and one 'high net worth individual'. Around the same time, another company run by Mr Reading, Rose Cottage Farm Ltd, also got into trouble, failing to make payments on a £4m mansion in Kent which the entrepreneur had moved his family into. Furzefield, in Holwood Park Avenue, Orpington, is a large six-bedroomed house, set in about one acre of grounds on a gated estate, bought through the company in 2022 for around £2.5m and later marketed for £3.95m. Mr Reading is now being sued by a mortgage company in a bid to seize the mansion and turf the entrepreneur and his family out. McTominay's girlfriend Ms Reading has worked extensively alongside her father, previously being Fortress' head of investor relations and described as an 'integral part of the Fortress Capital team'. The model - who is now enjoying a lavish lifestyle in Naples, with the couple reported to have moved into a house by Lago Patria, a coastal lake close to the beach - also worked with her father as a financial adviser at Bounce, a company previously run by him. But Mr Reading is now locked in a fight to hang onto his own £4m home after administrators made a High Court bid to seize the property from the company through which he bought it. London's Court of Appeal heard that Rose Cottage Farm Ltd was a special purpose vehicle set up by Mr Reading to buy Furzefield in 2022 for £2.5m. Doncaster-based TFG Capital No.2 Limited lent a total of £2.85 million to the company in August 2022, secured by a mortgage over the house and any other company assets. The loan documents contained a covenant by the company not to permit occupation of the house or land as a dwelling by any person related to the company. 'However, Mr Reading and various members of his family and other dependents took up residence at the house on the land in early 2023,' said appeal judge Lord Justice Snowden, adding that 'the company defaulted on the April 2023.' The judge said that the arrears and interest now owed on the mortgage have taken the debt claimed by the loan company over £4m, and that they are fighting for possession of the property and to force Mr Reading and his family out. 'They have not contended that they have any formal lease or other agreement with the company entitling them to remain there,' the judge added. In August 2023, the loan company appointed receivers, with 'the power to demand and receive monies payable in respect of the land and to take possession and sell it.' After the receivers 'took the view that Mr Reading was not co-operating with them in seeking to arrange a sale of the land,' the mortgage company sued in August 2023, 'seeking an order for possession of the land' at Bromley County Court. But Mr Reading 'indicated an intention to contest the Bromley proceedings on a wide variety of grounds' and 'took a number of steps designed to frustrate (the) claim,' the judge said. Becoming impatient, the mortgage company then appointed administrators who in March last year at the High Court in Leeds issued an application under the Insolvency Act in the name of the company, seeking an order that they could sell the property and 'that Mr Reading and all current occupiers of the property deliver up vacant possession of the land'. In a ruling in May last year, Judge Jonathan Klein ordered the company 'must deliver possession of [the Land] to the administrators before the end of 11 July 2024.' But Mr Reading was granted permission to appeal against that order in July last year, and now has succeeded in having it overturned. Lord Justice Snowden, sitting with Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Nugee, allowed Mr Reading's appeal, overturning the High Court order as an 'abuse of process' and saying it essentially replicated the possession proceedings already started, but not yet concluded, in the county court. 'For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in this decision in relation to the application is intended to have any effect upon the Bromley proceedings or upon the merits of that claim,' the judge added. The case in the county court will now go forward at a later date.
