iSignthis just took its reinstatement battle with the ASX to Federal Court

It’s now been more than two months since iSignthis (ASX:ISX) was suspended from trade by the ASX.

And in its attempt to get reinstated, the payments platform has now commenced legal proceedings against the exchange in Federal Court.

In its Statement of Claim, iSignthis alleged the ASX had breached the law four times with its ongoing refusal to reinstate the company’s shares for trading.

The company also alleged it hadn’t been provided with reasonable assurances by the ASX regarding the security of confidential information provided by iSignthis as part of the investigation.

It summarised by alleging that the ASX had failed to meet its obligations in accordance with the Corporations Act, and that as a result iSignthis “has suffered, and continues to suffer, loss and damage”.

It’s been a long two months for the payments platform, which operates with a transaction-based revenue model via the provision of know-your-customer (KYC) services to assist clients in meeting anti-money laundering regulations for B2B transactions.

The drama kicked off following a report by industry watchdog Ownership Matters, which questioned the nature of multiple transactions in the lead up to June 30, 2018, when iSignthis hit a series of revenue targets which unlocked 336 million in performance shares for the executive team.

Further investigations by the AFR revealed that multiple transactions were processed through a Danish bank which was then taken over by regulators due to anti-money laundering concerns.

The payments company has since confirmed that it derived a material amount of revenue from companies that later attracted regulatory scrutiny, including one that was deregistered by ASIC.

On November 11, the ASX responded to a separate salvo from iSignthis in which the exchange said ASIC’s investigations into iSignthis remained ongoing.

In comments accompanying today’s announcement, iSignthis chairman Tim Hart said the company had taken legal action on behalf of shareholders.

“We are acting in the interest of our shareholders, as they have been denied the basic right to trade our shares for too long,” Hart said.

CEO John Karantzis said the company had provided more than 2,000 pages of confidential documents in connection with the proceedings.

“We have been patient and acted in good faith, but the company’s shares have been suspended for nine weeks,” he said.

iSignthis shares went into suspension at $1.07, well up from January 2019 but down from all-time highs above $1.60, which the stock reached just prior to the Ownership Matters report.

ALSO READ:

iSignthis is still in the wars after a rough week
17 questions: iSignthis responds to ASX, shares remain in suspension
iSignthis just went tit-for-tat with the ASX, next submission due by Friday