An Auckland company director could face five years’ jail for supplying false information to the Companies Office, according to Roger Wallis, a partner in law firm Chapman Tripp, as reported in today’s Dominion Post (13 Jan.P. A5). Rules need to be enforced he said. Mr Wallis identified an Auckland company that he said had clearly breached Section 377 of the Companies Act 1993 prohibiting the making of false statements by both the director and the person incorporating the company.
It follows that if the person who incorporates five companies and sets himself up as sole company director of each one, knowingly supplies false information to the Companies Office at the time of the incorporations when he signs Director Consent and Shareholding agreement Certificates etc. and continues to do so regularly over a period of almost ten years; then he has committed multiple offences.
Mr Wallis highlighted the fact that a company director who gives an office address as his/her residential address commits an offence, when in other documents relating to other company records an Auckland apartment [or some other dwelling] is recorded at the same time as the person’s residential address.
[Under section 373 of the Act] “This is a serious criminal offence, making a person convicted liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or a fine not exceeding $200,000,” Mr Wallis said.
The Registrar of Companies would probably look into the specific offences he had elaborated on.
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