{"id":32639,"date":"2013-03-01T10:32:11","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T08:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=32639"},"modified":"2013-03-01T10:46:14","modified_gmt":"2013-03-01T08:46:14","slug":"i-have-smoking-gun-evidence-holdsworth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/32639\/i-have-smoking-gun-evidence-holdsworth\/","title":{"rendered":"I have “smoking gun” evidence: Holdsworth"},"content":{"rendered":"

AppChat<\/a> founder and CEO, John Holdsworth<\/a> says he has “smoking gun” evidence to prove that JSE-listed company, Reunert<\/a> misled the court in order to enforce a restraint of trade against the start-up.<\/p>\n

Reunert originally brought an application in March 2012, in which it sought to enforce a contractual restraint of trade against\u00a0Holdsworth\u00a0and obtain interdicts preventing him and AppChat from ever competing against it.<\/p>\n

The case was founded on an allegation by Reunert that AppChat was intending to directly compete with a mobile VoIP application that\u00a0Nashua ECN<\/a>\u00a0were developing and had planned to launch imminently.<\/p>\n

Holdsworth was the founder and CEO of ECN (Nashua), a provider of IP-based next generation network services. He sold that business to\u00a0Reunert\u00a0in July 2011.<\/p>\n

He denied Reunert\u2019s allegations, claiming that ECN had never traded in the mobile market and that its entire business was in the fixed line market.<\/p>\n

Holdsworth\u00a0was granted leave to appeal following\u00a0a ruling delivered in the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein\u00a0on 25 January.<\/p>\n

Smoking gun<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holdworth said this week that new evidence had come into his possession. He said that a whistle-blower working in Nashua ECN’s financial department, provided AppChat with a copy of Nashua ECN’s annual budget for financial year 1 October 2011 to September 2012 under the Protected Disclosures Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis document is crucial as it covers the period of my restraint which ended on 28 August 2012,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Holdsworth, the evidence proves that Reunert had not planned any expenditure for mobile or mobile VoIP. He alleges that Reunert did not have any plans to develop a mobile VoIP application or enter the mobile market.<\/p>\n

\u201cReunert\u2019s legal documents are a web of half-truths and lies. The disclosure of Nashua ECN’s annual budget for financial year 1 October 2011 to September 2012, is the “smoking gun” evidence that finally blows their elaborate fraud out of the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think post this case people need to realise that large JSE-listed corporates do tell lies and should not just be believed,\u201d Holdsworth said.<\/p>\n

The Appchat lead stressed that observers would be shocked at the tactics Reunert adopted. \u201cThis is just the tip of the iceberg\u2026all will be revealed soon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

AppChat launch<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holdsworth said that AppChat has been placed in a very difficult, \u201cif not impossible position\u201d. \u00a0He noted that Reunert had large financial resources, and a large and “aggressive legal team” who work very hard to make his life as difficult as possible.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately they will not rest until they have shut AppChat down and had me thrown into prison for contempt of court. These guys are utterly ruthless and have adopted a win-at-all-costs approach. I tried to settle but they refused. It really is a case of fight or die,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, Holdsworth said he was confident that the company would still launch, and he hoped to make an announcement in due course.<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/a>

Andy Openshaw<\/p><\/div>\n

Reunert response<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andy Openshaw<\/a>, MD at\u00a0Nashua Communications says that Reunert is \u201ccomfortable\u201d with its case against founder John Holdsworth.<\/p>\n

Openshaw said that the SCA\u2019s decision was not a shock to the company. \u201cWe had expected it to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had lots of mud flung at us recently,\u201d he said adding that the company did not want to get itself involved in that kind of\u00a0 behaviour, instead leaving it up to court procedure to argue its case.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very comfortable with our case. All previous accusations have been proven wrong by the court,\u201d Openshaw said, adding that he expected the same outcome in future.<\/p>\n

Reunert pointed out that in four previous visits to the North Gauteng High Court had seen the company\u00a0 prevail, with costs.<\/p>\n

Openshaw also pointed out that restrictions currently placed on AppChat \u201care still in place\u201d.<\/p>\n

The case will now move forward to a full Bench of the North Gauteng High Court.<\/p>\n

More on AppChat and Reunert<\/h3>\n

Reunert hits back at AppChat<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Reunert has committed fraud: Holdsworth<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Holdsworth ready to sacrifice all in Reunert battle<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

AppChat\u2019s Holdsworth: \u201cCowboys don\u2019t cry\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Holdsworth to appeal AppChat ruling<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

AppChat to forge ahead?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Reunert vs. Holdsworth: High court rules<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Holdsworth accuses Reunert of delaying tactics<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Holdsworth says he has “smoking gun” evidence to prove that Reunert misled the court to enforce a restraint of trade against start-up, AppChat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":25141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[2434,1878,26,66,2433,555],"class_list":["post-32639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-andy-openshaw","tag-appchat","tag-headline","tag-john-holdsworth","tag-nashua-ecn","tag-reunert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32639"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32643,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32639\/revisions\/32643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}