The chief executive and chief financial officer of Globo, an AIM-listed technology group, have resigned amid allegations of falsification of data and misrepresentation of the company’s financial position.
The resignations come days after a scathing report into the company’s financial position by the US hedge fund Quintessential Capital Group and the suspension of stock market trading in Globo shares. The hedge fund claimed Globo, which was valued at about £100m, had been massively overstating its revenue and profit.
Canaccord Genuity, the group’s joint corporate broker, resigned on Monday morning with immediate effect.
Globo, a mobile phone software developer,convened a board meeting over the weekend to discuss the allegations in Quintessential’s report, published last Thursday. In a statement released to the London Stock Exchange, the company said: “It was intended that an appropriate independent forensic accounting team be appointed to investigate the claims.
“However, at the board meeting, Costis Papadimitrakopoulos, the CEO of the group, brought to the attention of the board certain matters regarding the falsification of data and the misrepresentation of the company’s financial situation, and offered his resignation, as did Dimitris Gryparis, the CFO of the group.”
A third director, Gerasimos Bonanos, has been suspended from his duties with immediate effect.
The board was also told that the chief executive had sold 42m shares in the company in the year preceding publication of the Quintessential report.
Globo said: “A committee of the board has initiated discussions with appropriate advisers in relation to the next steps and to ascertain the true financial position of the company.”
