Cricket legend Michael Clarke joins long list of sporting identities and other celebrities used to promote businesses of questionable merit

CRICKET legend Michael Clarke enthusiastically signed on as an “ambassador’’ for Gold Coast-based cryptocurrency startup Global Tech Exchange but it has fallen in a heap. .

Former Australian cricket captian Michael Clarke. Picture: Brett Costello

OUT FOR A DUCK

Cricket legend Michael Clarke has now joined that long list of sporting identities and other celebrities used to promote businesses of questionable merit.

The former team captain enthusiastically signed on as an “ambassador’’ in August for Gold Coast-based Global Tech Exchange, a cryptocurrency startup which hoped to raise $50 million from investors.

“I am really excited to be involved with Global Tech,’’ Clarke said at the time.

“Their ambition and drive is something that I resonated with (sic) straight away and I can’t wait to learn more about blockchain technologies.’’

Well, less than three months later, it’s all fallen in one big heap.

Following a few queries from the corporate cop, the company has applied to be deregistered and says it has issued full refunds to all investors in its aborted “initial coin offering’’ (ICO).

It didn’t help matters that Global Tech, which had less than $1000 in assets, promoted the capital raising despite having no financial services licence.

The company’s sole director, Andrew McLean, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Neither could his former business partner Marlon Donaire, who resigned as a director last month.

ASIC has blocked five similar capital raisings since April and new research suggests just how risky they have become.

Accounting mob EY found that a third of the 90 ICOs it examined around the world last year had lost all value, while the vast majority had fallen below their issue price.

Part of the problem is that it’s extremely difficult to properly value such schemes. It’s also pretty clear that most punters really have no clue how they work.

Despite these hurdles, ICOs have already raised a jaw-dropping $US15 billion globally so far this year.

BOGUS SOUVENIRS

A Brisbane souvenir business faces substantial penalties after a Federal Court ruled that it had made false and misleading claims about alleged Aboriginal goods actually made in Indonesia.

Kippa-Ring-based Birubi Art sold more than 18,000 boomerangs, bullroarers, digeridoos and message stones in retail outlets across Australia over a two-year period to late 2017.

The items were displayed with tags that said “Aboriginal Art,’’ “genuine’’ and “handcrafted’’ but made no mention of where they were manufactured.

The court will decide on a raft of penalties and other orders sought by the ACCC at a date to be fixed.

Birubi’s sole director and owner Ben Wooster did not return a call seeking comment yesterday but previously said he had a licensing agreement with Aboriginal artists to make the products overseas.

Ironically, Wooster once told a parliamentary inquiry that authentic Aboriginal artists “are all the victims of fake and ripped off art’’.

ON A ROLL

Brisbane’s startup sector is on a roll, with one of the city’s biggest co-working spaces announcing on Wednesday that it had doubled in size just two years after launching.

Non-profit outfit Fishburners has taken an extra floor in its CBD base The Capital in the Queen Street Mall, growing to a 205-desk operation.

It has also launched two new accelerator programs, including one that will help the young guns get some critical mass in Asia.

With $5 million in backing from the City Council over five years, Fishburners boss Pandora Shelley said there is “enormous entrepreneurial energy coming out of Queensland’’.

Meanwhile, a new report released this week by ACS, the tech society which just bought Steve Baxter’s River City Labs, predicts more than 10,000 jobs in the sector will be created across the state in the next five years.

ACS state boss Mike Driver said that Queensland “is on the cusp of digital boom’’ but universities are not churning out enough grads to meet the demand.