$4b wipe-out: WiseTech shares plunge after Richard White’s headquarters raided

Scandal-plagued billionaire Richard White is at the centre of a fresh drama after the corporate regulator and the Australian Federal Police raided the Sydney headquarters of WiseTech Global.

Prompted by this masthead’s revelations in February that White may have engaged in insider trading – an offence which can attract a 15-year jail term – search warrants were executed at the global logistic giant’s Alexandria office on Monday.

News of the raid led to more than $4 billion being wiped from WiseTech’s value, with its share price crashing 15.6 per cent. White, who founded the company in 1994 and still owns more than a third of it, personally lost more than $1 billion in Tuesday’s share rout.

Just before the market opened at 9am, the company informed the stock exchange that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the AFP had “executed a search warrant requiring the production of documents regarding alleged trading in WiseTech shares by Richard White and three WiseTech employees during the period from late 2024 to early 2025”.

“So far as WiseTech is aware, no charges have been laid against any person and there are no allegations against the company itself,” the statement read.

Monday’s raid continues a tumultuous year for White, who resigned as chief executive last October following an investigation by the Herald, The Age and Financial Review which revealed allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women, including complaints by multiple women who alleged he traded business advice for sex, a $2 million settlement with a former lover and WiseTech contractor, as well as bullying and intimidation.

The company, which serves more than 17,000 logistics companies globally, has undergone significant leadership scrutiny in recent months surrounding White.

After exiting the CEO role, he was given a new consulting role at the company with an annual salary of $1 million. After four independent directors dramatically quit the board in February this year, White, 70, rejoined the board as executive chair.

White told investors in December last year that he had sold nearly 3.6 million shares between October 2 and December 20, 2024. According to the notice, White’s private company RealWise owned 36.6 per cent of WiseTech, or more than 122 million shares.

After inspecting WiseTech’s share registry in February, the joint investigation discovered that White had continued to sell shares over the summer and sold about 1.87 million shares between Christmas Eve and late February of this year. The average share price over that period was $122, meaning White probably raised some $229 million from the sale of WiseTech shares.

According to WiseTech’s corporate guidelines, directors and senior managers “must not deal in company securities during blackout periods”.

The policy also says that the company secretary can advise other people who “possess inside information” that the restriction applies to them too.

A blackout period is a time in which company insiders (such as directors and executives) are banned from buying or selling their company’s shares. The most common blackout period is between when a company closes its books and then publicly announces its financial results to the sharemarket.

A spokeswoman for White said at the time: “Mr White obtained independent legal advice prior to undertaking the share trades.”

Insider trading can attract civil or criminal sanctions under the Corporations Act. Potential penalties include a maximum of 15 years’ imprisonment and/or the greater of $1.05 million or three times the profit gained or loss avoided.

A spokesperson for the corporate regulator confirmed that the regulator on Monday morning, “with assistance from the Australian Federal Police executed search warrants as part of an ongoing investigation”.

“As the investigation is ongoing, ASIC is unable to provide further comment at this time.”

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