Nick Candy sues fallen star of tech boom for lies

One of Britain’s best-known real estate magnates, Nick Candy, has accused a former business partner and fallen star of the dotcom boom of fraud. The billionaire is embroiled in a bitter legal battle with Robert Bonnier, a Dutch-born entrepreneur who was once fined for deceiving the stock market.

Bonnier allegedly tricked Candy – who is married to Australian singer and actress Holly Valance – into a multi-million pound investment in one of his firms, a fledgling social media company called Aaqua.

Legal documents seen by The Mail on Sunday allege that Bonnier convinced Candy to invest through repeated lies about his ties to Apple and the French luxury goods empire LVMH.

Candy’s Supreme Court claim is accompanied by a complaint to the FBI, urging an immediate investigation into Bonnier’s alleged cheating. Candy made an attempt to freeze Bonnier’s assets last summer.

The Dutchman claims that it was the asset freeze that caused the downfall of his company.

Bonnier, a former investment banker, made a name for himself in the early 2000s as the founder of telephone directory company Scoot. At its peak, that company rose to a valuation of £2.5 billion in 2000. However, it sank to a paltry £5 million when the dot-com bubble burst.

Bonnier’s star kept falling. In 2004 he was fined £290,000 by the financial regulator for misleading the market. In 2008, his £11 million London home was repossessed. He founded Singapore-based Aaqua in 2020.

As for Candy, he is most famous for developing One Hyde Park, a lavish residential apartment building in London’s Knightsbridge, with his brother Christian. His real estate wealth led to his bold, albeit unsuccessful, bid to buy Chelsea Football Club last year.

Legal battles are no stranger to him. In addition to his dispute with Bonnier, he is fighting a claim against Tamara Ralph, the designer who made Meghan Markle’s £56,000 engagement dress. Candy pumped millions into her fashion company, Ralph and Russo, in 2018 before it collapsed amid allegations that she spent money from the company to fund her lavish lifestyle – allegations she strenuously denies.

Candy took a stake in Aaqua after being approached by Bonnier in August 2020. Bonnier met one of Candy’s chief lieutenants, Steven Smith, at the five-star Belles Rives Hotel in Antibes. It was at that meeting on the French Riviera that Bonnier first claimed that Apple and LVMH wanted to invest in Aaqua, according to the court documents. Over the next few months, Bonnier bombarded Smith with information about Aaqua’s finances.

Correspondence accessed by The Mail on Sunday shows that Bonnier placed Apple and LVMH at the center of his growth plans, listing them as “founding partners” and including them as potential shareholders in a document. He even suggested that the founder of the French company, Bernard Arnault, the richest person in the world, could personally cough up money.

Bonnier also said Apple and LVMH could put about £700m into Aaqua between them. The agreement between Candy and Bonnier involved Bonnier buying shares in Candy-backed podcast company Audioboom. In return, Candy bought shares in Aaqua in the spring of 2021.

Legal action: Robert Bonnier with wife Nashida

But a year later, the relationship descended into acrimony. In court documents, Candy accused Bonnier of making “false” claims and “fraudulent misrepresentation.” The documents state: “Mr. Bonnier had not discussed an investment in Aqua with Apple or LVMH.” Apple and LVMH have been contacted for comment.

Candy is seeking £6m in damages from Bonnier – who has hit back with a £150m lawsuit of his own over claims the freezing order has put his company out of business.

Candy fired the first legal threat against Bonnier in June 2022, demanding answers about Aaqua’s ties to Apple and LVMH. There was no response and the global asset freeze was secured two months later. Bonnier’s company shut down last summer and hundreds of jobs were lost overnight. A handful of employees have filed claims of their own against Aaqua, claiming they were also misled about Apple and LVMH. Despite the consequences, the filings show that the Dutchman still has a 5 percent interest in Audioboom through his wife Nashida.

Mr Bonnier has strongly denied the allegations of fraud in court documents, claiming Candy “mischaracterized” their pre-contract negotiations.

His advisor, Joel Hogarth of Eliot & Luther, said, “Nobody ever believed there was a promise that Apple and LVMH would invest. There was talk of Apple and LVMH, but that was far from a contractual promise. It was an aspiration, not a promise.’

Nick Candy said: ‘We have reported him to authorities in numerous jurisdictions around the world and we look forward to seeing him in court. The UK FCA and Serious Fraud Office have been notified, as has the FBI.