ASIC is taking twice-bankrupt mining promoter David John Catsoulis to the Federal Court

A mining company spruiker whose wild claims caught the attention of the financial regulator is facing a possible 20-year ban from managing companies.

ASIC has taken David John Catsoulis to the Federal Court with the financial regulator aiming to disqualify him from managing corporations for up to 20 years.

Twice-bankrupt mining promoter David John Catsoulis has a date with the Federal Court with the financial regulator aiming to disqualify him from managing corporations for up to 20 years.

The action by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission is focused on Gold Coast-based Catsoulis’ conduct between 2021 and 2024 when he was a director at Warwick Gold Holdings and Impact Gold.

Impact Gold purportedly conducted mining operations in the Maprik region of PNG and Warwick Gold’s operations were supposedly around Texas in western Queensland.

Catsoulis was promoting the projects which at the time it was reported there were claims the projects were worth trillions of dollars.

Both companies have winding up orders and court appointed liquidators have identified millions owed to creditors.

David Catsoulis.

ASIC alleges that the companies entered into binding disadvantageous agreements under the management of Catsoulis, which ultimately contributed to their failures.

The regulator alleges the conduct by Catsoulis contributed to the companies’ failures and that a disqualification is justified.

ASIC has sought an order from the Court to disqualify him from managing corporations under Section 206D of the Corporations Act.

Under the Act a person may be disqualified from managing corporations for a maximum of 20 years if the person has been an officer of two or more failed companies within the last seven years and if the Court is satisfied that the manner in which the corporation was managed was wholly or partly responsible for the corporation failing.

In February, Catsoulis’ company AU Finance was reported to have been attempting to raise $477m for a “hi-tech refinery project” in Queensland.

The first case management hearing in the Federal Court is listed for July 23.

New Deal

Gold Coast tech entrepreneur Danny Maher says his global network management and cybersecurity software company FirstWave Cloud Technology has stitched up a new 12-month agreement with Microsoft.

The deal with Microsoft is valued at around $770,000 and represents an 18 per cent uplift from the previous agreement and effectively delivers a gross margin of about 100 per cent.

Maher says the Microsoft agreement was a strong endorsement of the company’s product road map and its strategic goal of growing its network management footprint in North and Latin America.

“We have built powerful and cost-effective network management software that scales and continues to be valued by large blue-chip corporate and telecommunications clients” he says from FirstWave’s Mexico office.

“An expanded commercial arrangement with Microsoft is a strong validation of the strength of our technology and our technology road map, and we look forward to continuing to build further on the relationship.”

FirstWave chief executive Danny Maher.

The increase in value of the current agreement with Microsoft is primarily due to expansion in the number of licensed nodes from 2000 to 14,000.

Four years ago Maher sold his software company Opmantek to ASX-listed cyber security outfit FirstWave.

Part of the agreement Maher, a former IT guy for Labor PM Paul Keating in the 1990s, became chief executive of FirstWave on completion of the deal with his firm Opmantek.

Over the past three weeks, FirstWave has delivered 1.8m in sales agreements, including a $400,000 licensing agreement with Claro Dominican Republic and a $600,000 contract extension with Telstra.

Originally published as ASIC is taking twice-bankrupt mining promoter David John Catsoulis to the Federal Court