Crypto billionaire Andrew Budzinski sues speedboat sellers for failing to deliver $4m vessel

Forex and CFD trading billionaire Andrew Budzinski is suing over a missing $4m speedboat.

You come across all sorts of dodgy characters when you’re trying to put together the trappings of a billionaire lifestyle. Witness the problems of forex and crypto trader Andrew Budzinski, now about to enter his second year of a US lawsuit over a failed attempt to buy a $US2.6m speedboat.

Budzinski has plenty of legal problems in his home country as well, mind you. The Perth-born founder of Sydney-based forex, crypto and contract-for-difference broker IC Markets (formerly International Capital Markets) is fighting a class action in the Federal Court brought by former customers, as well as a bitter dispute with a former employee in Fair Work.

Those matters are still winding their way through the Australian courts.

But it’s a smaller matter in the US courts that has recently caught Margin Call’s attention, in which Budzinski is suing over a failed 2022 deal to buy a $US2.6m ($4m) Mystic 5200 speedboat.

It’s a pretty sweet boat. The luxury 16m (52 foot) beast comes fitted with four 600 horsepower V12 outboard engines, has a top speed of close to 130km/h and can be customised to the new owner’s satisfaction.

A Mystic M5200 powerboat similar to one which Andrew Budzinski alleges he’s been ripped off when trying to buy a custom version. Picture: Mystic Powerboats website

Enter Cyprus domiciled Budzinski, who, according to court filings, approached what he thought was an authorised European dealer for Mystic and lodged an order.

After handing over a $US1.8m deposit, Budzinski discovered that German company Marine Partner Network GmbH (MPN) not only wasn’t an authorised Mystic dealer, but had handed off the deposit to US company Marinex to get the boat built.

Court filings say Marinex was originally getting the boat built to show off around Europe hoping to attract the attention of other rich folk after agreeing to buy it from the manufacturer for $US1.6m. But, rather than deliver the vessel to Budzinski, it instead sold it to a buyer in Miami when things got difficult. MPN then refused to return the Australian billionaire’s deposit.

“Plaintiff was furious,” say Budzinski’s court filings.

And, for the past two years, he’s been suing pretty much everyone involved in the transaction – MPN for taking his money, Marinex for taking his boat and Mystic for letting any of this happen.

For their parts, all three deny any wrongdoing.

MPN says Budzinski tried to pull out of the deal before delivery, and refused to pay the rest of the contract price. Marinex says it was just the middleman and didn’t deliver the boat because it wasn’t paid the full amount, and Mystic says it didn’t know anything about any of this and shouldn’t be held liable. Plus, it says, Budzinski already ran this case in a German court and lost.

The entire thing looks set to trouble the Middle District of Florida courts for some time to come.

It’s even begun to encompass Budzinski’s Australian legal troubles, as these things often do. This week the billionaire’s US legal team filed a tetchy brief arguing that Mystic should not be allowed to use filings from the Australian class action against IC Markets, which allege Budzinski’s company engaged in deceptive behaviour.

“This document has no relevance to this case. It neither proves nor disproves whether the Mystic or Marinex defendants engaged in deceptive or unfair conduct in their transaction with Mr Budzinski,” the filing says.

“Instead, it simply attempts to paint Mr Budzinski in an unfavourable light. Plainly, the sole purpose for the Mystic defendants to introduce it is to confuse the issues and encourage the jury to dislike Mr Budzinski.”