Property magnate Candy and former business partner locked in legal fight

The property tycoon Nick Candy is locked in a bitter legal row with a former business partner in which they have traded allegations about each other’s conduct and financial worth.

- Haroon Siddique

The Tory donor’s firm Candy Ventures Sarl (CVS) is pursuing a claim for alleged fraudulent misrepresentation against the social media company Aaqua and its boss, Robert Bonnier.

Bonnier was once seen as one of the City’s hottest young entrepreneurs as chief executive and founder of the online business directory Scoot, which was valued at more than £2bn at the height of the dotcom boom but ended up being bought out for £5m.

CVS is suing Bonnier, who was handed a then record fine in 2004 for misleading the stock market. CVS claims it was induced to invest in Aa qua on the basis of his representations that Apple and LVMH were about to put their own money into the company.

The deal involved CVS investing in Aaqua by transferring shares owned by Candy in the podcasting platform Audioboom to Aaqua in return for shares issued by Aaqua in itself.

Candy, who is married to the former Neighbours actor Holly Valance, said he had reported Bonnier to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the FBI over the allegations, which are denied by Bonnier. The Dutchman has brought a counter-restitution claim after sweeping freezing orders were wrongly granted against his and Aaqua’s assets.

So-called worldwide freezing orders were once described by a judge as “nuclear weapons of the law”. Aa qua and Bonnier claim the orders had a “catastrophic impact”, causing the loss of 160 jobs and €195m (£170m), which they are seeking to recover from Candy and his venture fund.

Lawyers for CVS have apologised for “misleading information” provided when obtaining the freezing orders and acknowledged they were “wrongly granted”, but reject the idea that the orders caused the losses incurred or that they were as large as claimed.