British Columbia Securities Commission permanently bans Bane Hunter and Joel Richard Stewart Macdonald through reciprocal orders tied to GetSwift disclosure misconduct

The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) has imposed permanent bans on Bane Hunter and Joel Richard Stewart Macdonald from participating in British Columbia’s investment market, relying on reciprocal-order powers following findings by Australian authorities relating to GetSwift Limited, an early-stage technology company now based in British Columbia. A BCSC panel based the sanctions on a 2021 Federal Court of Australia finding that Hunter (then CEO, chair and director) and Macdonald (director) were liable for GetSwift’s failure to disclose material information in announcements to the Australian Securities Exchange. The Australian court later disqualified Hunter from managing corporations for 15 years and imposed a AUD 2 million penalty, and disqualified Macdonald for 12 years with a AUD 1 million penalty. GetSwift moved to British Columbia in 2020, renamed to GetSwift Technologies, and entered voluntary liquidation in 2022 after raising AUD 104 million and transferring AUD 80 million overseas, with the liquidation preventing recovery of investors’ funds. In British Columbia, GetSwift remains subject to a 2022 BCSC cease trade order for failure to file required continuous disclosure. Under the BCSC’s permanent bans, Hunter and Macdonald are prohibited from acting as a director or officer of any issuer or registrant, from becoming a registrant, and from trading securities other than in accounts in their own names, among other restrictions, with the sanctions replicated across most of Canada.