The Malta Independent 9 May 2024, Thursday
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Julie Meyer denies accusation that Ariadne Capital committed fraud

Julian Bonnici Thursday, 11 January 2018, 09:36 Last update: about 7 years ago

Julie Meyer has said that it was Ariadne Capital who issued a claim against Digital Media Technologies (DMT) in Gibraltar, rather than what has been claimed by a document published within Companies House, the UK's registrar of companies and the UK's executive agency and trading fund.

Meyer claims that it was in fact DMT who had committed accounting fraud after the company that was placed into administration, and that Ariadne Capital has sued the company in Gibraltar. She said that, “there is a claim against them, so any statement that DMT would have put on the record should have been subject to intense verification as to whether they were making statements to protect their interests - which they are; we are currently concluding a settlement where DMT would pay Ariadne money, and quite obviously they are trying to defame me in order to not have to pay money that they owe to Ariadne.”

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In the document, there are accusations that the company Ariadne Capital, which has recently gone into bankruptcy administration and holds an MFSA regulated company, was used to commit fraud and theft.

The document was written by FRP Advisory, who has been tasked with conducting the liquidation of Meyer's other company Taggstar which left unpaid bills amounting to of £924,340.

However Meyer told this newsroom that, “Taggstar is not my company; I was asked by the Board of DMT to save the company, and Ariadne turned the business around.  We put in a managing director to cut costs, brought in investment including our own money, loaned Taggstar money and were 3 months away from profitability when the DMT Board tried to regain control of DMT from Ariadne, and threw Taggstar into liquidation in the UK - but not before stripping our assets to DMT; this is accounting fraud, and we have claimed against DMT for this.

An Ariadne company lawyer said, “the liquidation of Meyer's other company Taggstar,  is not a company which was part of the Ariadne Group or, indeed, belonged to Julie Meyer. Ariadne was merely an investor in Taggstar.”

He also claimed that, “Court records in Gibralter will show that Ariadne sued DMT, not the other way around.”

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Earlier report

Julie Meyer has been accused of using the company Ariadne Capital, which has recently gone into bankruptcy administration and holds an MFSA regulated company, to commit fraud and theft. She has now denied any wrongdoing.

FRP Advisory, who has been tasked with conducting the liquidation of Meyer's other company Taggstar which left unpaid bills amounting to of £924,340.

Meyer was the sole director of Taggstar until 12 April 2017, 17 days before the filing of accounts for the year to 30 September 2015, which left unpaid bills amounting to of £924,340.

The Financial Conduct Authority, the UK's financial regulator, has now said that it will begin looking into Ariadne Capital itself.

In contrast, the Malta Financial Services Authority had been uncooperative when sent questions by The Malta Independent to remedy the issue, insisting that it was looking into the matter, while Finance Minister said that journalists were giving "the minister more importance than he actually has."

The report was published on 30 August 2017 and reads as follows:

"As advised in the director's report provided to the meeting of creditors, it is alleged that during Julie Meyer's tenure as Taggstar's sole director, company funds and advances provided by Digital Media Technologies Limited (DMT) were misappropriated and used to fund Ariadne Capital Limited (Ariadne).

"Demand was made by DMT to Ariadne to repay the money apparently misappropriated and the shareholder subsequently issued a Lien Enforcement Notice in an attempt to recover the misappropriated DMT shareholder funds.

"It was further alleged that Julie Meyer as a director of DMT, instructed potential DMT investors to pay subscription monies into the Taggstar bank account in contravention of the DMT subscription agreement resulting in potential investors not receiving the DMT shares they were expecting. It would appear that once funds were received by Taggstar they were immediately transferred to Ariadne.

"As a result of these allegations, DMT issued legal proceedings in Gibraltar with a view to recovering the shares held by Ariadne which would, in turn, be sold pursuant to the shareholder agreement with the funds received becoming due to Taggstar. The Liquidators have not been party to those proceedings and the value of any potential recoveries remains uncertain at this time."

Ariadne Capital recently faced claims of unpaid bills in Malta, where it has had an office since 2016. 

In the last couple of months, a court has issued a garnishee order against Meyer following a claim for over €59,600 by a Naxxar firm that provides website design and development and a former employee's judicial letter to recover outstanding wages amounting to more than €22,000, a copy of which is available to the newsroom.

However, as has been shown across the globe, many of those who decide to take on Meyer and Ariadne Capital in a court of law come out victorious. The question on many people's minds is how Meyer and her company have been allowed to operate both in the UK and, more recently, in Malta despite a proven history of misconduct.

Speaking to The Malta Independent on Sunday, one of Meyer's alleged victims explained that her offer of a challenging project yielding extremely high profits easily lures in individuals and that a combination of minor monthly repayments at the beginning of the working relationship and a confident demeanour allows trust to develop.

It was only once Meyer was being pursued regarding invoices would she suddenly turn aggressive and try to use legal measures to scare the individual from pursuing the matter further.

Since the earlier reports, Meyer has attacked both the media and the two directors who resigned from her MFSA-regulated company within the Ariadne Capital Group amid serious concerns over the company's mismanagement following a recent spate of legal cases in Malta.

Meyer also organises the Follow the Entrepreneur Investor Summit, where both Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Economy Minister Chris Cardona have been speakers. The event had 50,000 people watching live, 15,000 website visitors and 470 registered investors.


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