Property tycoon: Nick Candy with wife Holly Valance

Property tycoon: Nick Candy with wife Holly Valance 

It is the latest development in the bitter High Court clash between Nick Candy, one of Britain’s best known property developers, and Robert Bonnier, a controversial dealmaker and fallen star of the dotcom boom.

For more than a year the two former business partners have traded furious legal blows amid the failure of a tech start-up that promised to revolutionise social media.

Candy, who is married to Australian singer and actress Holly Valance, accused Bonnier of fraud after he was enticed into making a multi-million pound investment in fledgling social media firm Aaqua.

Dutch-born Bonnier returned fire with a £150 million lawsuit alleging that efforts by Candy to freeze his worldwide assets caused his business ‘irreparable harm’.

Now, in a major escalation of hostilities, it can be revealed that Candy has accused Bonnier’s wife Nashida of making a series of ‘artificial trades’ in shares of the podcast firm Audioboom, which Candy claims ‘bear the hallmarks’ of ‘wash trading’ – a form of market abuse.

Bonnier has strenuously denied the ‘egregious allegations’, while his spokesman has said the trades were normal transactions.

The Mail on Sunday can also reveal that Bonnier, a former investment banker, is now fighting on two fronts after an investment group behind Aaqua lodged bankruptcy petitions against him and his wife.

Candy, 51, is best known for developing One Hyde Park, a lavish apartment block in Knightsbridge, Central London. When it opened in 2011 it was dubbed ‘the world’s most expensive building’. The properties within were valued at a total of £2 billion.

Bonnier, 54, was one of the City’s hottest young entrepreneurs. He founded online business directory Scoot, which was worth more than £2 billion at the height of the dotcom boom before its shares slumped and it ran out of cash.

Last night, Candy said Bonnier ‘must be held accountable’. He said numerous prominent investors have suffered ‘substantial losses’ in Bonnier’s schemes over decades.

In 2004, Bonnier was hit with a £290,000 penalty by the City regulator for misleading the stock market and in 2008 his £11 million London home was seized by banks. It was Britain’s biggest repossession.

Despite such setbacks sources say he has in recent years continued to enjoy the lavish lifestyle of a super-rich tycoon, with an apartment in Paris, private jet flights and stays at sumptuous hotels.

Indeed, Bonnier and his wife are such valued customers at the five-star Mandarin Oriental Jumeira in Dubai – having spent tens of thousands of pounds on an extended stay in a penthouse – that a palm tree by the hotel’s swimming pool carries a plaque honoring ‘Mr and Mrs Bonnier’.

E stablished by Bonnier in 2020, Aaqua promised to ‘fundamentally reset’ social media and connect ‘creators’ with major brands. Candy’s investment in February 2021 – via his firm Candy Ventures (CVS) – involved a deal in which he sold £6.8 million of Audioboom shares in exchange for a stake in Aaqua.

Candy, however, claims that Bonnier convinced him to invest through repeatedly falsely claiming that Apple and French luxury goods empire LVMH were about to plough money into the company.Apple and LVMH were described as ‘founding partners’ in one document, while another suggested they could together buy Aaqua shares worth around £675 million, it is claimed. Candy accused Bonnier of ‘false’ and ‘fraudulent’ representations.

In recent legal disclosures, Bonnier’s lawyers said he met Apple bosses Steve Jobs and Tim Cook in 1999. Discussions with LVMH boss Bernard Arnault – the world’s richest person – or members of his family were said to have taken place at ‘multiple social events’.

Big spenders: Robert Bonnier with his wife Nashida

Big spenders: Robert Bonnier with his wife Nashida

Bonnier vehemently denies ‘all allegations of fraud’ and claims he ‘honestly’ believed that Apple, LVMH and others could be partners once Aaqua had been able to demonstrate ‘proof of concept’.

Candy added: ‘Bonnier claimed throughout that Apple was investing in Aaqua. He made these claims to CVS, to numerous other investors, to executives he was trying to hire, and to his own shareholders. Bonnier has now been forced to concede that his only interaction with Apple amounted to two meetings, including a ten-minute conversation with Tim Cook, which took place 25 years ago in 1999.’

Meanwhile, court documents reveal that Candy has accused Aaqua and Nashida Bonnier of a series of ‘artificial trades’ of shares in Audioboom in an attempt to boost their value.

The legal documents allege that in a bid to ‘increase the market value’ of Aaqua’s shares in Audioboom and generate funds for its holding company, ‘a series of artificial trades in those shares was arranged between Aaqua and third parties including Mr Bonnier’s wife which bear the hallmarks of an unlawful process known as ‘wash trading’.’

Wash trading is when a trader sells and buys the same shares to themselves to falsely give an impression of market demand.

Last night, Candy said he complained to the Financial Conduct Authority, but the regulator has declined to investigate.

Speaking to the MoS, Candy said: ‘The evidence of market abuse is clear. My legal team immediately notified the FCA and provided all the trading information which showed how Bonnier and his wife were artificially manipulating the market. The FCA has done nothing.’

Bonnier’s adviser, Joel Hogarth of Eliot & Luther, said Aaqua had ‘convincing evidence’ that the trades were ‘normal’ transactions.

The FCA said it could not comment on ‘ongoing litigation’, but added: ‘We take market abuse concerns seriously.’ The MoS has also learnt that investment group All Active Asset Capital (AAAC), which owns a 35 per cent stake in Aaqua, has launched bankruptcy proceedings against the Bonniers.

In December, the High Court ordered Robert Bonnier to repay a £1.3 million short-term loan that he received from AAAC and for the couple to pay more than £100,000 in costs.

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