Phillip Kingston
Phillip Kingston is a British-Australian entrepreneur and engineer. He founded Sargon and GrowthOps.
Career
Sargon
Kingston founded Sargon, a financial technology and superannuation services firm, with Aron D'Souza in 2013.In 2019, Sargon sought to float itself on the Australian Securities Exchange, with it being reported that backers hoped it would be valued at over AUS$1 billion.
Sargon went into administration in February 2020, after creditors appointed receivers to try to recover unpaid debts from the firm. Creditors included GrowthOps, another of Kingston's businesses, which was owed "an amount below $1.8 million" and told investors it was unsure whether the money was recoverable. Sargon's lender, Taiping Trustees, was owed $100m and in September 2020, sought to freeze Kingston's assets but was blocked by a court order.
In August 2021, it was reported that documents tabled to Parliament by Liberal MP Tim Wilson showed that the parent company of Taiping Trustees had misdirected repayments in "a deliberate effort to take ownership" of Sargon. In December 2021, the Federal Court of Australia agreed to hear the case Kingston had brought to appoint special liquidators to investigate the claims that Sargon had been deliberately bankrupted. Kingston withdrew the suit in March 2023.