Cat and mouse chase of former Dee over $15 million legal claim by teammate

Justice Connock denied Strauss’ bid for substituted service, although decided not to dismiss the application and allowed more time for his legal team to find Macdonald.

Given Macdonald cannot be located to accept service of the writ, it is unknown if, and on what basis, he intends to defend the claim.

Hazell told The Age he was confident he would eventually track down Macdonald.

“Whilst I understand why the court reached its decision, it’s frustrating that after so much effort from so many people we have been unable to locate him. That said, I’m confident we will get there,” Hazell said.

Macdonald, who played 126 games with Melbourne and Brisbane before making a fleeting appearance on the BRW Young Rich List, started an alcohol delivery business called Liquorun in 2013 with Strauss and another Melbourne footballer, Rohan Bail.

Strauss resigned as operations manager of Liquorun in 2015 but maintained his shares in the business, which shifted its focus to logistics software before changing its name to GetSwift.

Strauss claims that in September 2016 Macdonald told him that Strauss’ 8 million shares in GetSwift would be placed in escrow – a type of legal holding – as a condition of the company’s ASX listing, which would prevent him from selling the stock for two years.

According to the writ filed in August last year, Strauss was also told he had a three-month window in which he could offload his stake, which prompted him to sell more than 4 million shares for $250,000 just a month before the float.

More than 3.3 million of those shares were bought by Macdonald for $200,000, or 6¢ a share.

Macdonald would later tell Strauss, according to the writ, that he had negotiated with the ASX for the escrow period to be reduced to one year because he was never a director or employee of GetSwift.

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Just days before the float in December 2016, Strauss signed an agreement prepared by GetSwift that stopped him from selling the stock for 12 months for “the purpose of complying with chapter nine of the ASX listing rules,” according to the writ.

The value of GetSwift shares surged from 20¢ to more than $4 within 12 months of listing, but plummeted when the company became embroiled in series of scandals over breaches of its disclosure and reporting obligations.

In February 2018, the company announced that fewer than half the contracts it had been spruiking were actually generating revenue.

When Strauss’ shares were eventually released from escrow – almost three months after the agreed date – he was forced to sell them at significantly reduced prices.

He would later learn from correspondence with the ASX that it had never imposed an escrow requirement on his shares, which were only ever subject to a voluntary arrangement, according to court documents.

Macdonald did not respond to requests for comment from The Age.

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