iSignthis $11m penalties upheld on appeal
Australia’s Full Federal Court yesterday largely dismissed appeals by iSignthis Ltd and its former chief executive officer Nickolas Karantzis, leaving $11m in penalties and a six-year ban in place. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the corporate regulator, said the court, comprising Justices Stewart, Cheeseman and Neskovcin, gave judgment on 2 November 2026. It allowed the appeal only on the terms of one declaration (a formal court statement that the law was breached) against Karantzis, which is to be amended. The judges held that the correction “could have been raised before the primary judge, and its correction does not alter any substantive liability or penalty outcome.” The company and Karantzis must pay ASIC’s costs of the appeal.
Justice McEvoy set the penalties on 8 August 2025, after finding liability on 21 June 2024. iSignthis, now called Southern Cross Payments Ltd, received a $10m civil penalty (a financial penalty imposed by a court in a regulatory case) for breaching disclosure laws, the rules requiring listed companies to give the market accurate information. Karantzis received a $1m penalty for breaching director’s duties and failing to ensure that information given to the ASX (Australian Securities Exchange) was not false or misleading. He was also disqualified from managing corporations for six years.
The appeal court also dealt with how harm is measured. In upholding the company’s penalty, the Full Court said, as quoted by ASIC: “The relevant harm included harm to the integrity and proper operation of the market and was not confined to demonstrated financial loss suffered by an identified shareholder.”
The contraventions took place between 2018 and 2020, and ASIC began proceedings on 7 December 2020. The appeal was lodged on 5 September 2025. The company was renamed Southern Cross Payments Ltd on 11 May 2022 and was delisted, meaning removed from the ASX’s official list, on 4 November 2022. ASIC Chair Sarah Court said: “Investors are entitled to trust what listed companies tell the market. There is no room for spin.” She added: “Today’s decision reinforces that companies and directors will be held to account when they fail to meet those obligations.”
