Worker chases $100,000 unpaid wages from liquidated tech company Optimizer HQ

Manas Kumar, of Optimizer HQ and ODEV Limited, which is now in liquidation.

A former employee is seeking $100,000 from a tech company that once aspired to list on the NZX and is now in liquidation.

Lawrence Sami was employed by mobile payment company Optimizer HQ, run by Mana Kumar, which previously operated the Swipe payment brand from February 2012.

In April 2013 Optimizer HQ changed its name to ODEV Ltd, but Sami continued to receive employment correspondence, including pay increases, from a company called Optimizer HQ.

When he was owed wages in 2014, Sami entered into a share agreement with a company called Optimizer HQ in leiu of wage arrears.

ODEV Ltd collapsed in 2015 and the liquidators said in December unsecured creditors were owed about $10.6 million.

In July liquidators Jared Booth and Tony Magginess filed a report saying they had received claims from secured creditors ANZ Bank and Bartercard Exchange Ltd for $108,744 and $152,056 respectively. A payment of $93,051 has been paid to ANZ.

Preferential creditors, including employees, had filed claims for $16,268, according to the report, an unsecured creditors claimed $207,017. Boris van Delden and Peri Finnigan were named the new liquidators.

Sami took a claim seeking $60,826.91 unpaid wages and $43,896.51 holiday pay to the Employment Relations Authority.

The ERA found Sami was employed by Optimizer HQ, not the defunct ODEV Ltd, and has ordered Optimizer HQ to produce evidence related to the wage arrears claim.

Read the full decision here:

• An earlier version of this story featured incorrect reference to payments to creditors.