A court has frozen millions of dollars in cash and property belonging to a Canberra internet entrepreneur after his former partner claimed he was planning to move assets offshore.
Founder of Netspeed IT Connect Brian Morris has been ordered by the ACT Supreme Court not to dispose of the proceeds of the sale of a $4million property in Canberra's south. He has also been ordered not to let his bank account balance dip to less than $400,000.
Master of the Supreme Court David Harper has also ruled that MrMorris cannot dispose of any interests in the companies in his dotcom business empire or properties he owns in Barton, Civic, Florey and the NSW South Coast without an application to the court.
Lawyers for the 40-year-old businessman had to go to court this week for permission to pay a $230,000 credit card bill and more then $110,000 to federal communications authorities to stop them winding up one of his companies.
MrMorris's former partner, Sally Bray, who is seeking 40 per cent of the businessman's assets, went to court last month to seek the injunctions after she was told that he had sold the house in O'Malley to the United Arab Emirates embassy for more then $4million.
In an affidavit filed with the court, Ms Bray alleged that her former partner arranged the sale without her knowledge and that he was planning to travel to China.
''I am concerned he may remove the proceeds of the sale offshore,'' Ms Bray said in the affidavit.
She said that Mr Morris had repeatedly threatened to ''bring down'' his business empire which has 25 employees denying his ex-partner a property settlement.
''You will get nothing,'' Mr Morris is alleged to have said.
''I will bring the businesses down.''
The 37-year-old former hairdresser also secured an order that her former partner could not evict her and their two-year-old daughter from the luxury apartment in Barton where she has been living since the couple's 15-year relationship ended in April last year.
Ms Bray's court documents allege that Mr Morris took her to the Residential Tenancies Tribunal to get her out of the exclusive Barton apartment, pleading ''financial hardship''.
The three-bedroom apartment with sweeping views of Canberra has been placed on the market with a $900,000 price tag.
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