Aussie-founded tech company YuuZoo raided by Singapore police in securities probe
Australian-founded technology company YuuZoo is under police investigation in Singapore over allegations it breached the country’s Securities and Futures Act.
Co-founded by Australian tech entrepreneur Ron Creevey and former Nokia Asia Pacific chief executive Thomas Zilliacus in 2007, the Singapore-listed company claims to make “social e-commerce networks” for brands.
According to The Straits Times, the company’s Singapore headquarters were raided last week as part of an investigation by the city state’s Commercial Affairs Department over breaches related to its franchise arrangements between 2013 and 2016.
Thomas Zilliacus, YuuZoo’s co-founder and current chief executive officer, has handed over his passport to the CAD, the Straits Times reported.
Creevey – who claims to be no longer associated with the company – was previously managing director of Magna Data, one of Australia’s early Internet Service Providers, and was a major shareholder in the late Heath Ledger’s artistic collaborative, The Masses.
In 2010, when YuuZoo recruited Telstra’s then head of content, Chris Taylor, to the company, Creevey said the company would be “the first truly global new media company run out of Australia”.
Taylor left Yuuzoo to join Quickflix the following year and the company went on to list on the Singapore Stock Exchange in 2014 following a reverse takeover.
In a statement posted on the Singapore Stock Exchange last Thursday, the company said: “As at the date of this announcement, the CAD has not disclosed to the company any further details on the above mentioned investigations.
“The company will cooperate fully with the CAD in its investigation and will make announcement as and when there are further significant developments with regard to this matter.”
YuuZoo specialises in making gamified social commerce platforms and in 2015 was said to have partners and franchisees in 68 countries, including China, France and Nigeria.
Among YuuZoo’s most notable products released in Singapore was a mobile game called Honey Snatch.
However, since its SGX listing, YuuZoo has been embroiled in a civil lawsuit in New York that alleged the company and its founders, including Zilliacus, Creevey and Mark Cramer-Roberts, had engaged in securities fraud.
In the lawsuit, the founders are alleged to have made YuuZoo look like a successful entity valued at $US383 million (S$490 million).
Since the Singapore police’s investigation was launched, YuuZoo’s trading on SGX has been suspended.
In its latest financial statement from last year, the company made significant losses of S$20,678,000 before tax. The previous year, it had made a gross profit S$4,102,000.
Meanwhile, its losses before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation came to S$12,758,000 against its EBITDA of S$12,222,000 in 2016.
The company said it raised S$30 million in investor funding, but its revenue from last year amounted to around S$519,000. The year previously, YuuZoo had made S$4,878,000, marking a fall of nearly 90%.
According to the results, the losses were caused by “significant impairments of available for sale assets”.
Zilliacus has been contacted for further comment.
