Vancouver tech firm Apply Digital has become embroiled in a messy legal battle that alleges a business it acquired in Chile had effectively stolen the identity of its Hong Kong-based parent company. 

What seemed like a straightforward acquisition in July 2022 has drawn Apply Digital, a company that builds websites, apps and online stores, into a years-long ownership dispute rooted in claims of corporate identity theft. The company’s two founders have stepped down and taken board seats since the firm was sued last year, while the business continues to expand. At the centre of the legal battle is a remarkable claim: that Apply Digital had acquired a company that had stolen the identity of another.

In March 2025, a Hong Kong company called Reign Digital Creatives Limited (RDCL) sued Apply Digital in Santiago, claiming the Canadian firm had illegitimately profited from acquiring Reign, a business it claims had been stolen from RDCL.

RDCL alleges that Juan Claudio López and his business partner, Juan Manuel Fluxá, were meant to launch a Chilean subsidiary controlled by RDCL. Instead, it claims, the partners took RDCL’s brand, customers and digital tools to run a separate company under the Reign name. RDCL claims it never received the ownership stake it was promised before López and Fluxá sold the Chilean business to Apply Digital.

While RDCL does not accuse Apply Digital of participating in the alleged fraud, it claims the Vancouver firm benefited from the deception. RDCL is seeking profits that Apply Digital earned from the acquisition. It also wants US$9.5 million from two Chilean investment companies, representing most of the estimated price that Apply Digital allegedly paid to buy Reign. That money, RDCL claims, should have gone to the Hong Kong firm instead.

Apply Digital disputes the claims. In a May 2026 court filing in Santiago, its lawyers said the company had been dragged into an ownership conflict that began years before its purchase. They disputed RDCL’s claim that buying Reign made Apply Digital liable to return profits to the company whose identity and business were allegedly stolen. It also argued that the Chilean court lacks jurisdiction over the Vancouver business, and said the case should instead be heard in Canada. The allegations have not been proven in court. 

Raimundo Moreno, a lawyer for Apply Digital, said the company “considers the claim against it to be without merit and will continue to defend its position in court.” Moreno declined to comment further on the case.

The dispute dates back to 2015, when RDCL began planning an expansion into Chile. The Hong Kong company was founded in 2010 to develop mobile apps and websites. Its four original shareholders—Matthew Mayer, Fluxá, Todd Cullen and Anna Grütter—each owned one-quarter of the business, according to court records. 

López, who had previously worked for RDCL in China, negotiated with Mayer and Fluxá to lead the company’s new Chilean business, where he would find customers and manage projects with staff and financial support from RDCL, according to internal company communications filed as evidence. The business would operate as Reign, but under a separate corporate entity registered in the name Ardisan. RDCL would own 95 per cent of the new business, and López would own five per cent, according to a memorandum of understanding. López would accept a pay cut in exchange for equity, while RDCL would provide developers, designers and financial support. 

Ardisan’s lawyers argued that López and Mayer, acting for RDCL, negotiated several versions of the arrangement but didn’t reach a final, binding deal. 

López incorporated Ardisan in August 2015 with the proposed ownership split, according to court filings. However, the business struggled to get the tax registration it needed to invoice customers in Chile. A lawyer proposed temporarily transferring all RDCL’s shares to López, and returning them to the company once the administrative problem was resolved. In December 2015, López created another company, also called Ardisan, with himself as its sole shareholder. 

The court documents distinguish the corporations as Ardisan 1 and Ardisan 2. The second Ardisan was owned by López and became the business that operated as Reign and was eventually sold to Apply Digital. 

RDCL claims López’s sole ownership of Ardisan 2 was meant to be a temporary solution to the tax-registration problem. Once resolved, the claim alleges, he was expected to transfer 95 per cent of the shares back to RDCL in Hong Kong. 

Ardisan 2 disputes this. Its lawyers acknowledge that while the original plan was to make the business an RDCL subsidiary, that arrangement never materialized. They argue RDCL knew how López established the second company and that the ownership structure was transparent. 

Internal RDCL documents submitted as evidence nevertheless claim the ownership transfer from López to the Hong Kong firm was forthcoming. Its first quarter 2016 financial report states plans to “transfer Ardisan shares to RDCL this year.” 

In October 2026 testimony in the separate ownership lawsuit, Cullen said Mayer and Fluxá consistently presented Ardisan as an RDCL subsidiary in shareholder meetings and reports. He described the relationship as both practical and financial: Ardisan brought in South American customers, while RDCL built the software and delivered the services.

Questions about the ownership of the Chilean business intensified in 2018 when William Douglas, a U.S. businessman whom filings identify as RDCL’s current legal representative, bought Grütter’s quarter of RDCL only to discover that López still hadn’t transferred his shares to the company. Douglas and Cullen sought information about the Chilean operation’s finances and ownership. RDCL claims some shareholders believed at that point that Ardisan was a subsidiary when, in fact, it was under López’s control. Douglas declined to comment on RDCL’s allegations. 

Court filings show that López has a different account of events. “I set up Ardisan myself in 2015,” he wrote in a June 2019 email to Cullen. He said he had understood he would own most of its shares and that, although it would use some of the same processes and branding with RDCL, it would remain independent. “If you believed that Ardisan was supposed to be a subsidiary of RDCL, then you were mistaken,” López wrote. “I never agreed to that.” 

He also claimed Ardisan had transferred more than US$500,000 to RDCL “to help them” between 2015 and 2018 without receiving services in return. “I don’t think you have suffered any financial damage due to this misunderstanding,” he wrote.

By then, the Hong Kong business was struggling to survive. In board minutes from October 2018, Mayer and Fluxá said lost and unrealized contracts had left RDCL unable to pay its five remaining employees. RDCL’s lawsuits, however, allege that its managers and López had diverted its business and resources to the Chilean operation. 

That involved taking over customers and digital tools belonging to the Hong Kong company, RDCL claims. The company alleges its websites, social media accounts and email addresses had been shut down between October 2019 and February 2020 and redirected to the Chilean business’s website. Ardisan denies taking RDCL’s customers and using its employees to serve the Chilean business. 

By the time Apply Digital bought a company that went by Reign in 2022, López and Fluxá each controlled half the business through their respective investment companies, JCL and Bosonic, RDCL claims. It remains unclear how much the Vancouver firm paid for Ardisan. RDCL says it has not obtained the sale agreement. It estimates the price at US$10 million because López and Fluxá’s investment companies each later put US$5 million into two new companies, Arkenstone and Photonics. RDCL alleges that this money came from the sale to Apply Digital. RDCL wants US$9.5 million—95 per cent of the estimated sale price—representing the ownership stake it claims it should have held in Ardisan at the time Apply Digital acquired the business. 

Lawyers for López and Fluxá did not respond to The Logic’s request for comment. Bernardita Castro, a lawyer for Photonics, the company linked to Fluxá, said her clients dispute RDCL’s claims and declined to comment further while the cases are before the courts.

Legal disputes are ongoing over Reign’s ownership, whether Apply Digital owes anything to the original company that started in Hong Kong, and where the case ought to be heard.

Since being sued last year, Apply Digital’s co-founders Chris Coghlan and Gautam Lohia have both stepped down from their executive roles, though they remain on the company’s board. In March 2026, Apply Digital appointed former Omnicom executive Ali Alkhafaji as CEO, while Lohia became board chair. Alkhafaji’s mandate includes expanding the company’s artificial intelligence services and global business.