Former AFL player handed $1m fine, ban as GetSwift hit with penalties

Former AFL player Joel Macdonald has been ordered to pay $1 million and will be disqualified from managing corporations for 12 years, as the Federal Court handed logistics provider GetSwift the largest-ever penalty for breaching continuous disclosure laws.

Macdonald, a former Melbourne Demons player, was previously director of the last-mile logistics company, which became a market darling during Australia’s golden era for tech stocks.

On Friday, the Federal Court ordered GetSwift to pay a record penalty of $15 million, for failing to meet its disclosure obligations. It comes after the court found in November 2021 that the logistics provider made misleading statements to the ASX and breached its disclosure obligations 22 times between February and December 2017.

GetSwift delisted from the ASX in January 2021 and created a new holding company on Canada’s NEO exchange, despite ASIC opposing the scheme, before being placed in voluntary liquidation in August 2022.

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 found Macdonald was focused on making money, with “little understanding or regard for his legal obligations as a director”.

Similarly, he described former director, chief executive and executive chairman of the company, Bane Hunter, as having “a laser-like focus on making money” and that “if that involved breaking the law regulating financial markets, or exposing GetSwift to third party liability, that was of little concern to him.”

Hunter was ordered to pay a penalty of $2 million and disqualified for 15 years, and another former director, Brett Eagle, was ordered to pay $75,000 with a disqualification period of two years.