Crabb, Swaby settle Lift Capital claim

Paladin Energy officers Rick Crabb and Gillian Swaby have reached a settlement deal on their action against collapsed margin lending business Lift Capital Partners, which sold a parcel of shares without permission.

In a brief note to the local stock exchange today, Paladin said chairman Mr Crabb and company secretary Ms Swaby had reached a confidential settlement with Lift Capital and a creditor of Lift.

In April last year, a secured creditor of Lift sold 6.4 million Paladin shares and 7 Paladin million shares on behalf of Mr Crabb and Ms Swaby, respectively, without their permission.

During that time, the parcel of Paladin shares sold by the creditor was collectively worth about $60 million. Paladin shares were trading at about $4.50 at the time.

Today, Paladin shares were up 22 cents at $4.70.

Ms Swaby also had more than 12 million Deep Yellow shares, valued at about $3.3 million, caught up in the collapse of Lift, which were returned today as part of the settlement deal.

Shares in Deep Yellow last traded at 36.5c, valuing Ms Swaby's parcel at $4.5 million.

Last year, Merrill was forced to sell shares held by Lift Capital to recoup losses.