Court asked to freeze F45 founder’s cars, mansions, $6M painting as creditors fight for millions  

The co-founder of the beleaguered global fitness empire F45 is at risk of having his luxury cars, waterfront properties and a $6 million Brett Whitely painting frozen under a forfeiture order filed by creditors seeking $10.8 million in Federal Court.

The application to freeze assets was filed last week against Adam Gilchrist (not the former Australian cricketer) who was chief executive of the cult gym chain until he stepped down in July 2022 in the wake of the sudden market bloodbath. values ​​of F45.

Court documents obtained by Daily Mail Australia list Mr Gilchrist’s Porsche Speedster 911 and Porsche Panamera.

Other assets are believed to include beachfront homes and a Brett Whiteley masterpiece of Bondi Beach entitled ‘Unfinished Beach Polyptych’, which is specified in the lawsuit.

Gilchrist had enjoyed a lavish lifestyle when the training business became an international giant.

The Federal Court’s statement of claims says that all of Gilchrists’ assets are subject to the freezing order. Above the $18 million Wattegos Beach mansion he owns near Byron Bay

The Federal Court’s freezing request order includes two Porsches owned by Adam Gilchrist, a 911 Speedster (above, file image) and a Panamera

He rubbed shoulders with celebrities, bought beachfront property, and made $500 million overnight when Hollywood star Mark Wahlberg invested $450 million in F45.

During this time, Gilchrist hired the financial company Ironbark Advisory and the private investigation firm Oracle Investigations as his financial adviser and to carry out personal security and investigative work.

According to court documents, Gilchrist had agreed to pay the advisers totaling $15 million over several years, but stopped making payments in July of last year.

This was the same month as F45’s spectacular stock market crash after which Gilchrist reportedly received a $10 million golden handshake from the company and deleted his social media accounts.

Despite his disappearance, it emerged last week that Gilchrist was still on F45’s board of directors, along with Mark Wahlberg, despite three other Australian directors being replaced by American ones.

The Federal Court of Australia’s freezing notice filed on behalf of Gilchrist’s Australia-based financial and security advisers claims that it “partially” honored its financial agreements with them for 19 months before “failing to pay”.

Among Gilchrist’s assets specified in the Federal Court documents was a 7m-long piece of art by Brett Whiteley titled ‘Unfinished Beach Polyptych’ (above) that is worth around $6 million.

Gilchrist sold two houses he had bought with his wife in Freshwater Beach in the weeks after the F45 stock bloodbath, for a combined $22 million.

The agreements included retention fees for Ironbark Advisory of $80,000 per week for ten weeks, and a “success fee” of $2.75 million within 14 days of the May 2020 agreement to instruct the fitness mogul on legal advice. , accounting, tax and other fees, and two additional annual recurring fees of $2.75 million thereafter.

Gilchrist had agreed to pay Oracle Investigations fees of $70,000 and $2.25 million in similar structures over the same terms.

It paid each company $2.1 million and stopped paying after July 1, according to court documents. Ironbark then demanded $6.15 million and Oracle $4.65 million, both with interest.

The Brett Whiteley artwork specified in the Federal Court documents is a seven-meter-long “polyptych” similar to that of the legendary Sydney painter that sold for more than $5.4 million in 2016.

F45, which made its fortune from the franchise of 45-minute high-intensity interval and circuit training classes, has been in the headlines of late with its board shakeup, market shrinking and impending class action lawsuits.

Since F45’s stock plunge, the company has been criticized for its public float (above left, Mark Wahlberg and Adam Gilchrist on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021) and for paying “oldies” like David Beckham ( top right) to promote your brand.

Shares of F45 Training plunged 62 percent last year, an 88 percent drop from its debut price, a year after Gilchrist and Wahlberg put it on the stock market amid much fanfare.

The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in mid-2021 with an estimated value of $2 billion.

The shares peaked at $17.28 after their initial public offering, dipped to about $3 and have not traded above $4 since.

The company laid off 45% of its corporate staff as part of a restructuring and announced that it would only open 40% of the new gyms it promised.

Franchises are now downloading large quantities of F45 gear with their red, white and blue logo and “team training, life changing” tagline on Facebook Marketplace.

Last August, the company posted a loss of A$55 million for the first quarter of 2022-23, a whopping $97 million reduction from its annual profit of $42 million just four years earlier.

Franchises are now downloading large numbers of F45 kits bearing their red, white and blue logo on Facebook Marketplace (above), as the now-struggling company faces a shrinking market for its franchises.

Adam Gilchrist co-founded F45 with Rob Deutsch (above with his wife Nicole) one year before the share issue and two years before the collapse. Deutsch has embarked on a new baby goods start-up, Markot

In October last year, Gilchrist listed his Byron Bay guest house for $10 million to $11 million, his third property to come on the market in the weeks since he left as F45 chief executive.

This followed the sale of his two Northern Beaches homes for million and million, and he owns another property on Wategos Beach in Byron Bay, an .

85 million trophy home.

Gilchrist’s friends contacted by Daily Mail Australia say they have been unable to reach him and some believe he is abroad.

His F45 co-founder Rob Deutsch, who said he hadn’t spoken to Gilchrist for years, left the gym company in 2020, long before his stock market float he’s criticized since, saying it “definitely wasn’t in the best interest of the business’, and that paying ‘veteran actors and athletes like David Beckham’ to promote the brand was ‘an epic failure’.

Deutsch has since created another baby goods start-up, Markot, based in Sydney’s Alexandria.

The Federal Court’s notice of freezing order for Adam Gilchrist’s assets states that the order ‘will cease to have effect if you pay the sum of $10,800.00 plus interest and legal costs’.

He then appears in court in March.