The sentencing of a fourth former director of OPI Pacific Finance brings the case to a close.
The fourth and final former director of OPI Pacific Finance, David Mark Anderson, has today been sentenced in the Auckland High Court for misleading investors and brings the case that the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) commenced in October 2013 to a close.
Anderson was the last OPI Pacific Finance director to plead guilty to two charges under the Securities Act 1978, in a prosecution taken by the FMA and has been sentenced to 300 hours community work and ordered to pay AUD $100,000 in reparation to be paid to the company’s receivers.
Distributing an advertisement in 2007 which included untrue statements plus signing a registered prospectus in 2007 that included untrue statements were among the charges.
Former directors of OPI Pacific Finance, Mark Lawrence Lacy, Jason Robert Duncan Maywald and Craig Robert White, also pleaded guilty to the same charges earlier this month.
“In bringing this case to a close, the four guilty pleas and convictions show that each of the directors have accepted responsibility for their failure to fulfil their disclosure obligations to investors,” said the FMA’s acting director of enforcement and investigations Paul O’Neil.
“Due to the directors’ actions, investors were misled about the position of the company, resulting in financial losses. These criminal convictions send a strong message to issuers of securities in New Zealand that this type of misconduct will be held to account.”
Management bans placed on the defendants will prevent them from being a director or promoter, or having any role in the management, of any incorporated or unincorporated body based in New Zealand for a period of five years from the date of their convictions.
“This case demonstrates that the FMA will pursue those it suspects of misconduct, even when they are based outside of New Zealand, in order to protect and promote the integrity of our financial markets,” said O’Neil.
The trial scheduled for 5 October 2015 will now not proceed.
Anderson was the last OPI Pacific Finance director to plead guilty to two charges under the Securities Act 1978, in a prosecution taken by the FMA and has been sentenced to 300 hours community work and ordered to pay AUD $100,000 in reparation to be paid to the company’s receivers.
Distributing an advertisement in 2007 which included untrue statements plus signing a registered prospectus in 2007 that included untrue statements were among the charges.
Former directors of OPI Pacific Finance, Mark Lawrence Lacy, Jason Robert Duncan Maywald and Craig Robert White, also pleaded guilty to the same charges earlier this month.
“In bringing this case to a close, the four guilty pleas and convictions show that each of the directors have accepted responsibility for their failure to fulfil their disclosure obligations to investors,” said the FMA’s acting director of enforcement and investigations Paul O’Neil.
“Due to the directors’ actions, investors were misled about the position of the company, resulting in financial losses. These criminal convictions send a strong message to issuers of securities in New Zealand that this type of misconduct will be held to account.”
Management bans placed on the defendants will prevent them from being a director or promoter, or having any role in the management, of any incorporated or unincorporated body based in New Zealand for a period of five years from the date of their convictions.
“This case demonstrates that the FMA will pursue those it suspects of misconduct, even when they are based outside of New Zealand, in order to protect and promote the integrity of our financial markets,” said O’Neil.
The trial scheduled for 5 October 2015 will now not proceed.
