It can be disappointing when you’ve been promised an army of angels to smite your enemies, but nothing arrives.
We imagine that’s how self-proclaimed Christian “marketplace minister” Dave Hodgson feels, as he fights a lawsuit brought by the corporate regulator for allegedly running unlicensed investment schemes and misleading investors about the value of the assets in those schemes.
Hodgson, who runs an online ministry called Kingdom Initiatives (formerly Kingdom Investments), has denied the civil claims.
And his followers and investors certainly rallied round when Kingdom Initiatives announced the start of the lawsuit on social media a year ago, saying Hodgson would “defend them vigorously”.
The comments brought out the best in his followers, in addition to the usual thoughts and prayers for success.
“Let us all pray believing God will vindicate Dave for God’s glory and it will only be another testimony to share eventually as the battle belongs to the Lord!” said one.
Another attributed the lawsuit to the activities of Satan himself (which is a pretty tough way to describe Joe Longo, we feel).
“Stay strong Dave. You are an inspiration. The Devil is threatened by the Good work you do in the name of Jesus and the Glory you give to God,” said the comment.
A third promised that “angelic armies will fight for you”.
Now, Margin Call has no idea whether an angelic host is circling Longo’s abode, waiting for their moment. But the heavenly legal department certainly hasn’t bothered to weigh in.
Hodgson was last seen in the Federal Court on Friday, failing to push back the hearing date of the case due to his supposed difficulty in finding the cash to pay lawyers. But, far from a demonic intervention, in giving the marketplace minister short shrift Justice Sarah Derrington attributed his difficulties to a reluctance to put his own properties at stake when trying to raise money.
Hodgson was trying to delay the case until November to allow him time to sell a Sunshine Coast apartment, worth up to $6.5m, to fund a legal team. But Justice Derrington said was “not persuaded that a serious attempt to sell the property has been made”.
And anyway, Hodges could have sold or borrowed against a second Queensland property he owns.
In fact, the only attempt to borrow funds for his legal case came as part of an application for $2.3m to Skybound Fidelis Bridging Capital – only $470,000 of which was earmarked for legal funds, with the rest for “working capital”.
Unsurprisingly, Skybound declined to offer up the money, citing “reputational risk associated with the unresolved court action”.
“Had Mr Hodgson applied only for an amount to cover his legal fees secured against property, being the Maroochydore apartment and the Forest Glen property, which Skybound Fidelis had valued collectively at $7.25m, it is unlikely that reputational risk would have factored into the decision not to lend,” Justice Derrington said.
All of which seems to run counter to Hodgson’s claims – which partly underlie ASIC’s case – that one of the companies he put investor money into, Kradle Software, was worth more than $1bn.
Among other things, ASIC alleges Hodgson raised more than $105m from about 280 investors through two companies, MacroLend and Great Southland.
MacroLend Investors were told that money would be lent to Kradle, to help with its plan to develop “new techniques revolutionising the way databases are designed and workflow processed”.
According to ASIC, that money was instead used for working capital for Hodgson’s business group. And far from $1bn in intangible assets, Kradle’s own balance sheet showed they were worth only $11,180.
Whether that sort of thing fits in with Hodgson’s mission to teach “businesspeople how to follow God’s Will and God’s Way in the marketplace” we’ll leave to his conscience.
But Justice Derrington will make a decision on the facts of the case after a trial starting in mid-July.
Interested observers
A curious cameo in the online audience for this week’s court hearings over whistleblower allegations that miner TerraCom dodgied up coal quality reports to help sell their product.
Among the plethora of lawyers, journalists and assorted other hangers on, one of Margin Call’s eagle-eyed colleagues spotted the names of whistleblowers in another major case. Former Super Retail legal chief Rebecca Farrell and co-worker Amelia Berczelly spent significant time looking on, ahead of the filing of Super Retail’s defence to their claims against the company on Friday.
Perhaps a bit of solidarity for Justin Williams, the former TerraCom general manager who blew the whistle on allegations that TerraCom was involved in fraudulently rigging coal quality certificates? Or were they hoping for an insight into the kind of grilling they might undergo when their own case comes to court.
Hard to say. Neither Farrell nor her lawyers responded to an inquiry as to why she was watching on, sadly.
And it may not have been them, of course. It would be, to be fair, trivially easy for anyone to enter the pair’s name into the Federal Court’s broadcast system, though we struggle to thing of any reason anyone would bother.
The TerraCom trial has been reserved for judgment and Super Retail is ongoing.
More Coverage
Add your comment to this story
Computershare’s PointsBet cock-up puts votes in doubt
The world’s biggest share registry company’s cock-up at PointsBet throws doubts over every shareholder vote the $23bn company has overseen.
Vote debacle as Betr bungles its block on PointsBet takeover
Betr’s been a vocal opponent of PointsBet’s takeover by a Japanese suitor so how on earth did its blocking vote vanish from the shareholder count? Brace yourself for the recriminations.
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout