A former director of South Canterbury Finance (SCF) has been found guilty of what has been billed the “biggest fraud in New Zealand’s history”, in relation to the company’s $1.58 billion collapse in 2010. In the High Court at Timaru this morning, Edward Sullivan, aged 72, a former lawyer, was found guilty of five of the nine charges he faced. He has been remanded on bail and will face sentencing on 12 December 2014.
Photo: Stuff News: Edward Sullivan (far left)
Justice Heath criticised the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into the company’s collapse, stating there might have been documents that showed transactions were being concealed but the “deficiencies in the investigation by the SFO office meant that evidence did not exist.”
Another CFC former director Bob White, 70, and former chief executive, accountant Lachie McLeod, 50, were found Not guilty on ALL counts.
The men faced a total of 18 charges under the Crimes Act, including theft by a person in a special relationship, obtaining by deception, false statements by the promoter of a company, and false accounting – each carrying maximum penalties ranging from seven to 10 years’ jail.
Full story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/10612568/SCF-trial-has-one-guilty-two-not-guilty-verdicts
Former SCF director Edward Sullivan was found guilty on five counts under the Crimes Act 1963:
Count 2: Making a false statement in SCF’s prospectus 57 in 2006 by failing to declare related party lending: Sullivan- guilty.
Count 3: Making a false statement in SCF’s prospectus 58 in 2007 by failing to declare related party lending: Sullivan – guilty.
Count 4: Making a false statement in SCF’s prospectus 59, in 2008 by failing to declare related party lending and referring to a $150million credit facility: Sullivan – guilty.
Count 5: Making a false statement in SCF’s prospectus 60 in 2009 by failing to declare related party lending: Sullivan – guilty.
Count 9: Misuse of a document to derive a pecuniary advantage: Sullivan – guilty.
Over 61 days of evidence, more than 40 witnesses were called and 3000 pages of transcript generated and hundreds of documents pored over in one of New Zealand’s most expensive criminal trials.
Full story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/10612568/SCF-trial-has-one-guilty-two-not-guilty-verdicts
Photo credit: http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/9300636/SCF-trial-appeals-dropped
For more see: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11342081
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