Failed logistics startup GetSwift’s cofounders, Bane Hunter and Joel Macdonald, have been banned from being company directors in Canada for life.
The bans come four years after the pair moved to North America as their ASX-listed business disintegrated amid legal action and relisted in British Columbia.
The BC Securities Commission (BCSC) last month placed permanent bans on Hunter and Macdonald from operating in the British Columbia (B.C.) investment market.
The decision comes in the wake of Federal Court penalties in Australia in 2023 that saw Macdonald banned from running companies for 12 years and Hunter for 15 years.
They were also fined $1m and $2m respectively. The fines remain unpaid.
The duo, who now reside in the USA, are permanently prohibited from being a director or officer of a company in B.C. They’re also banned from trading in or purchasing any securities or derivatives, unless through a registered dealer who’s been given a copy of the ban. The BCSC sanctions are replicated across most of Canada.
GetSwift moved to B.C. in 2020, changing its name to GetSwift Technologies, then went into voluntary liquidation in 2022. The company had raised A$104 million while on the ASX and then transferred A$80 million overseas. The liquidation meant none of the investors’ funds could be recovered.
A subsequent class action in Australia saw investors receive 1 cent in the dollar.
The BCSC issued a cease trade order against GetSwift in 2022 because it had not filed accounts under its continuous disclosure laws.
Harm to investors
In imposing bans, the BCSC panel said the pair were “instrumental in GetSwift’s misrepresentations to Australian investors and in redomiciling GetSwift’s business to British Columbia. [Their] conduct resulted in harm to investors.”
The push to ban both men was commenced by BCSC executive director Peter Brady in May 2025.
Bray’s submission to Bane Hunter was blunt.
“The seriousness of your conduct was exacerbated by the fact that your actions were ‘insidious’, ‘tricky’, and the result of a deliberate scheme authored by you as “ringleader” and GetSwift’s most senior officers motivated by financial gain. You also acted aggressively against any GetSwift employees who insisted that GetSwift ‘act prudently and comply with the norms of regulating disclosure’,” he wrote.
“In fact, it was found that you bullied those individuals. Your actions went beyond mere bullying, however, as a result of your “laser-like focus on making money” for yourself and your co-respondent Macdonald. If making money ‘involved breaking the law regulating financial markets, or exposing GetSwift to third party liability, that was of little concern to [you].’ Finally, after being caught having done just that, you gave no acknowledgment that you had acted improperly, showed no contrition or remorse, and in fact, there was evidence of the opposite.”
Hunter, based in New York, engaged with the BCSC, seeking extensions in responding, changing lawyers, and then arguing over jurisdictional issues and procedural fairness. His counter arguments included reputational damage and that the proposed ban relied on historical Australian Federal Court findings, when there was no subsequent enforcement or conduct suggesting risk in Canada, which demonstrated “rehabilitation and strong governance reforms”.
“If the Executive Director relies principally on a foreign decision, fundamental fairness requires full disclosure of the foreign tribunal’s findings, an opportunity to rebut or explain them, and an evidentiary process that allows the respondent to put in context any factual findings from the foreign decision,” a summary Hunter’s submission to the panel said.
“The reputational consequences of a ban are immediate and irreversible: employment prospects worldwide, ability to support dependents, and professional reputation would be destroyed even where the BC nexus is thin. The Commission should not take such a drastic measure without clear and convincing evidence of present or impending risk to BC markets.”
It was noted that despite listing GetSwift in Canada, Hunter “never been physically present in BC, has no intention to participate in BC markets, and there is no evidence of BC investors being affected,” submissions to the BCSC said.
Hunter argued that the public interest did not support a blanket ban and it was not proportional. He asked for no market prohibition order against him or, if there was, that it be limited to British Columbia.
While Bray tracked Macdonald down to three addresses in Florida, including one in Miami, he did not respond before the panel decided to also ban him on October 23.
The Australian case
The Australian case that fuelled Bray’s submissions was made by Federal Court Justice Michael Lee in 2021. The 868-page judgment outlined how the company broke the ASX’s continuous disclosure laws 22 times.
Hunter was the CEO and chairman, Macdonald, a former Melbourne Demons AFL player, was GetSwift’s former MD and a director.
GetSwift emerged in 2015 out of McDonald’s alcohol delivery startup Liquorun. Within a year it listed on the ASX at 20 cents a share, raising $5 million.
Within two years its actions would lead to the ASX to tighten its market disclosure requirements in 2018. The company raised more than $104m as a public company.
Australia’s corporate regulator, ASIC, took the business and its directors to court for deceptive and misleading conduct in 2019, alleging the company made misleading statements to the ASX..
Justice Lee found “what might be described as a public-relations-driven approach to corporate disclosure on behalf of those wielding power within the company, motivated by a desire to make regular announcements of successful entry into agreements with a number of national and multinational enterprise clients.”
When Lee handed down $18 million in fines and the bans, he berated the two men as “representing the unacceptable face of startup capitalism”.
Hunter was “knowingly involved” in 16 of 22 continuous disclosure breaches and 29 instances of misleading and deceptive conduct. For Macdonald it was 20 of the 22 disclosures and 33 instances of misleading and deceptive conduct. Both men breached their director’s duties.
Neither Hunter nor Macdonald took part in the Australian hearings, having left the country.
GetSwift announced to the ASX in September 2020 that it would to re-domicile in the US. It did so in 2021, listing on Canada’s NEO exchange in January of that year.
The share price went from CAD$2.05 to $0.07 cents when trading was suspended 19 months later in July 2022. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US with a market cap of CAD$2.155m.
At the same time, GetSwift’s Australian subsidiary was handed to liquidators. In doing so, Bane and Macdonald broke an undertaking to another Federal Court judge when they moved overseas. The duo potentially faced contempt of court proceedings, but no action has been taken.
Justice Lee said in his his 70-page penalty judgment that: “neither Mr Hunter nor Mr Macdonald have shown the slightest degree of remorse or contrition, nor have they made any acknowledgment they behaved improperly. Additionally, ASIC has been unable to explore where all the money raised from investors went.”
Lee noted that following that 2021 ruling the “insouciance” of the duo “was reflected in the fact that there were no changes to the composition of the board even at this late stage”.
The pair remained in their roles, and Hunter pocketed $1,791,328, of which 46% was “performance related” and Macdonald, $1,616,019, with 51% of his remuneration also “performance related”.
GetSwift posted operating losses in every year its existence.
When Federal Court judge Bernard Murphy approved a seperate class action settlement against GetSwift in early 2023, he described it as “an unhappy day” for investors who received around 1 cent in the $1, calling what happened at GetSwift a “scandalous episode in corporate misconduct”.
Macdonald resurfaces, then vanishes
Before the BCSC hearing, Joel Macdonald made a brief reappearance on social media in mid-2025, launching a YouTube channel under his name, where he offered to be a startup mentor.
“If you’re someone who’s been beaten down, in a dark spot, rebuilding or just wants to have a massive crack on a global scale, then this channel is for you,” Macdonald said in the 23-minute monologue titled “I LOST $200M…and it almost KILLED me”.
Joel Macdonald in the now hidden YouTube video.
“I was 30, I was on top of the world, I was one of Australia’s youngest public company CEO’s, first class (flights), best restaurants, young rich list and then BOOM! everything vanished,” Macdonald said.
He loses his girlfriend, first class lifestyle, and money, and slides into drinking, anger, depression and suicidal thoughts.
“The rage I felt inside of me that it was all over was insane,” he recounted.
“There were dark moments when I just wanted to end it all. That was the only way I could see that the pain could go away.”
He described what happened as “the ultimate MBA”.
“The final realisation was I wasn’t actually that happy when I was worth $200 million,” Macdonald said.
“What actually got me excited was the lead up to that the building process, the creative process, the building with your friends.”
He promised more, but the video has now been set to private and Macdonald’s YouTube account – “Played football. Built and exited a few companies. Now building/investing in Crypto, AI & Media” – with 217 subscribers now has no public content.
GetSwift Inc went on to sell its software-as-a-service assets in October 2022 as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings for US$5.3 million, including US$1m in liabilities. The business now operates out of Denver, Colorado.
