The assets of a high-profile tech entrepreneur have been effectively frozen amid a £320m High Court battle.
Sara Murray OBE was dismissed as CEO of Big Technologies plc – trading as Buddi – in March over accusations of financial deception.
Following an internal investigation with legal counsel, Murray – who founded the remote people monitoring specialist in 2005 and was once appointed to the technology strategy board of Gordon Brown’s Labour government – was accused of failing to disclose interests in entities that collectively hold 17.3% of Big Technologies’ shares, and of providing false information during the company’s 2021 initial public offering.
The entities in question are Zinc Limited, Monitoring Partners Limited, RCP Limited and Romelle Limited. The accusation is that she used offshore shell companies to push out minority shareholders.
Additionally, Murray directly holds about 26.8% of the company’s current issued share capital.
The Rickmansworth-based firm alleges that Murray also improperly diverted significant funds from the group prior to 2019.
Legal proceedings have been launched in the High Court. Now Murray, together with two companies associated with her – TFM Developments Limited and TFM Inventions Limited, both defendants in the claim – have provided an undertaking to the court agreeing not to dissipate assets up to £320m, the value of the claim.
The undertaking is subject to certain limited exceptions which permit Murray to deal with a specified number of her assets in order to pay agreed legal, living and other expenses.
Separately, an undertaking has also been provided by Zinc Limited, Romelle Limited, RCP Limited and Monitoring Partners Limited – also defendants in the claim – to the High Court not to dissipate their assets up to £64m, £48.5m, £79m and £78.5m, respectively.
The disputed companies, as well as FNB International Trustees Limited – in its capacity as trustee of the Murray Trust – have also each agreed to provide an undertaking to the Guernsey Court not to dissipate assets up to £150m.
In May Big Technologies plc appointed Ian Johnson as CEO and Mike Johns as director and CFO of the company, with interim CEO Daren Moris stood down. Alexander Brennan joined as chair in April.
The firm saw its share price drop from 105p to 64p in March but it has since recovered to around 100p. It has a market cap of £290m at the time of writing.
It delayed its full-year results to mid-June as a result of the scandal, but said trading for 2024 remained in line with expectations.