A founder accused of forgery by the listed firm she founded is part of a bid to oust its chair.
Sara Murray OBE is embroiled in a £320m High Court battle with Big Technologies plc after it dismissed her from the position of CEO in March. Murray’s assets have been effectively frozen during the case; and two weeks ago Big Technologies accused her of forgery and deliberate falsification of documents to push through the company’s £577m IPO in 2021. You can read full details of the accusation here.
Now Murray is part of a group of shareholders seeking to remove Alexander Brennan, the company’s chairman, from the board and replace him with James Graham Matheson.
Big Technologies has received a notice from Andrew Richer, Neudi Kapital AB, Swing Limited and Corbridge Holdings Limited requiring the convening of a general meeting to consider the changes.
The requisitioners have provided it with a copy of a document which shows support from Sara Murray, Judith Murray, Peter Lawson, David George and various other individuals. Together they claim to hold approximately 52% of the active voting rights in the company, with Sara Murray herself holding more than 26%.
“The board is currently verifying whether the requisition is valid,” read a notice to the London Stock Exchange.
The voting rights of several companies with ties to Murray were suspended in June after Big Technologies served legal notices which accused her of failing to disclose interests in the entities, which collectively held 17.3% of Big Technologies’ shares, and also of providing false information during the company’s 2021 IPO. The accusation is that she used offshore shell companies to push out minority shareholders.
The Rickmansworth-based firm alleges that Murray also improperly diverted significant funds from the group prior to 2019.
Murray – who founded and sold comparison website Confused.com earlier in her entrepreneurial career – launched people monitoring specialist Big Technologies, trading as Buddi, in 2005. It provides the Buddi electronic tagging system to the prison service, among other products.
She led a management buyout for £12.3m in 2018 – the circumstances of which are at the centre of further controversy, after five former shareholders in the firm brought legal action against it, claiming they had been forced to sell their holding during the MBO and were therefore denied the opportunity of cashing in from the float.
The potential forgery could “materially adversely impact the position of the company in the… litigation [brought against it by the former shareholders]”, Big Technologies said a fortnight ago, adding: “The company has also concluded that it and Buddi are unlikely to be able to successfully defend material elements of the claim.”
However, Murray hit back by claiming that they had been bankrolled behind the scenes by her ex-husband Michael Jackson, former chairman of software giant Sage, whom she split from in 2009. Both the former investors and Jackson denied this accusation.
Murray – who was once appointed to the technology strategy board of Gordon Brown’s Labour government – was sacked this summer following an internal investigation with legal counsel.
In May Big Technologies plc appointed Ian Johnson as CEO and Mike Johns as director and CFO of the company, while interim CEO Daren Moris stood down. Brennan joined as chair in April.
The firm saw its share price drop from 105p to 64p in March. It recovered most of that value but has dropped below 87p in the last fortnight following the recent dramatic developments.
It has a market cap of £257m at the time of writing (9.30am).