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SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Prosecution of company directors in breach of s. 261 of Companies Act 193

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Under s. 261 of the Companies Act 1993 a liquidator of a company has powers to obtain documents and information from a former director of the failed company. Failure to provide that information to the liquidator can result in the director being prosecuted and if convicted of an offence under s. 261, he or she “liable to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years”.

If the company director has been adjudicated as a bankrupt at the time of sentencing a judge would be compelled to impose a prison sentence rather than impose a fine. If the offending involved long-term and systematic refusal to supply documents to a number of liquidators involving multiple companies of which he/she had been a director, and the non-compliance showed a pattern of flagrant disregard for the law, a judge would no doubt be compelled to impose a maximum sentence. For to do so would be in the public interest because the law has a pedagogical role in addition to a punitive element designed to bring offenders to their senses regarding the rule of law as it prescribes and defines criminal behaviour.

Section 261 of the Companies Act entitled “Power to obtain documents and information” includes: [Read more…]

Liquidator chases property developer for $300k

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A thrice-bankrupted property developer allegedly withdrew investor funds associated with troubled Auckland housing projects and is now being chased for close to $300,000 in the High Court.

Damien Grant and Steven Khov of Waterstone Insolvency, as liquidators of Blake Street Trustee Ltd, have filed civil action in the High Court at Auckland against triple-bankrupt Peter Chevin.

The case is in its early stages and is likely to be heard sometime after November this year.

Chevin is a former director of Blake Street Trustee, which the liquidators say relied on agreements and investments schemes associated with property projects on Auckland’s North Shore to generate revenue.

See full story published 21/05/14: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11258982

Note: Peter Chevin was appointed as director of Blake Street Trustee Ltd on 19 June 2003 and resigned on 7 August 2008. On 13 November 2008 he filed a shareholding record with the Companies Office showing that he, as sole shareholder, had transferred all his shares to Peter Hill who resides at 1/114 Marua Rd, Ellerslie, Auckland 1051, New Zealand. Blake Street Trustee was incorporated on 19 June 2003 and put into liquidation on 13 December 2011. Peter Chevin was the sole shareholder from the date of incorporation through to the transfer of all his shares to Peter Hill.

Full marks to Fairfax Media ! – On-line Dave Henderson v. liquidator story headline amended

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Fairfax Media have amended their on-line story on the liquidator appointed by the IRD and the twice bankrupt property developer David Ian Henderson and given appropriate prominence to the correction. The false headline "Liquidator fined for ' buffoon' comment" [emphasis added] has now been amended to "Liquidator to pay for 'buffoon' comment [Emphasis added]. Fairfax now affirms that The Disciplinary Tribunal of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA) did NOT impose a fine on liquidator Robert Bruce Walker after ruling that he had breached professional standards (recognised by the NZICA Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) to have been at the lower end of 'offending'). Walker strongly denied the charges before the Tribunal, via his lawyer, and was required in its ruling, as Fairfax now helpfully point out - to pay "costs", and this is NOT a "fine".  

It is gratifying to see that some parts of the community have a sense of decency, evidenced by Fairfax Media making the online change (update) to the story promptly, correcting the error - which if had not done, could have opened it up to potential defamation. It is a shame that this prompt and principled response is not always the case among other institutions, and persons responsible for online stories. Among the latter, ethical qualities and standards are often sadly, even shockingly lacking.

Certain so-called "administrators" and "owners" of scurrilous websites who maliciously propagate defamatory falsehoods, knowingly, need to 'lift their game', to put it mildly, and recognise that once a falsehood has been formally notified to them, its defamatory nature identified by a complainant, and a formal request made for its removal, it must be removed. If it is not, this opens thoseresponsible for the website to potential defamation proceedings from the complainant. Courting defamation proceedings by, for example, accusing a person on-line of being a serial tax evader, and/or of parading fake degrees on a CV etc., and/or holding directorships of fictional companies or organisations etc, without providing any evidence; is the mark of a true coward, and a moral bankrupt. [Read more...]

Dave Henderson properties – Liquidator NOT “fined” for buffoon comment or any breach of “professional standards”

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Professional Standards – What are they? Key players: David Ian Henderson (bankrupt Christchurch Property Developer) and his business associate Ian Bruce Hyndman and their hired licenced private investigator, Wayne Idour; Robert Bruce Walker (the appointed liquidator of Henderson’s failed companies), Hamish McNicol , Fairfax Media reporter, and the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants’ Disciplinary Tribuna and Professional Conduct Committee.

A Fairfax Media report by Hamish McNicol, published at 15:25 on Thursday 17 April 2014, was headlined “Liquidator fined for buffoon comment” [Emphasis added]. It commenced:

A liquidator who referred to South Island property developer Dave Henderson as a “little b*****d” and a “buffoon” in a telephone conversation has been found guilty and ordered to pay costs of $18,165. [Emphasis added]

Liquidator fined for ‘buffoon’ comment | Stuff.co.nz

www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/…/Liquidator–fined-for-buffoon–comm…
5 days ago – A liquidator who referred to South Island property developer Dave Henderson as a “little b*****d” and a “buffoon” in a telephone conversation
 Timaru Herald – ?Apr 16, 2014?
A liquidator who referred to South Island property developer Dave Henderson as a “little b*****d” and a “buffoon” in a telephone conversation has been found guilty and fined. Robert Walker had also detailed his personal battle with Henderson in official …

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This Stuff News headline is not only wrong, it is defamatory. The online editor later changed the headline to

“Liquidator to pay for ‘buffoon’ comment” [Emphasis added].

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/9954565/Liquidator-fined-for-buffoon-comment

Why the change and was the revised headline true or false? [Read more…]

David Ian Henderson – a two-time bankrupt accuses Liquidator of conduct breaches

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David (Dave) Ian Henderson, twice-bankrupt high-profile Christchurch property developer, and his business associate Ian Bruce Hyndman, appear to have been behind a Notice in the National Business Review (NBR) and one in the NZ Herald (22/05/13) that ran last year, apparently seeking “information” on chartered accountant Robert Bruce Walker, liquidator of Property Ventures Ltd (in receivership and liquidation), the parent company of interconnected companies owned or controlled by Henderson. Henderson was behind the failed $2 billion Five Mile town development at State Highway 6, Queenstown, near the Queenstown Events Centre, colloquially known as “Hendo’s Hole.

As sailors know, it is important at sea to avoid peeing to windward. The blow back can be very unpleasant. So can the result of trying to gather ‘dirt’ and throw it at a person and make it stick, when a very strong gale is opposing the thrower.

Dave Henderson who was bankrupted in 1996 and discharged in 1999, was then bankrupted again on November 29, 2010, the latter one of the largest bankruptcies in New Zealand’s history. By his own account he had gross personal debts of about $165m and $86m after the sale of secured assets. The debts come mainly from personal guarantees he had given on loans to his companies.

Bankruptcies are managed by a Crown authority called the Official Assignee (OA) and normally last for three years. Henderson remains an undischarged bankrupt because the OA filed a notice of objection to Mr Henderson’s discharge, pursuant to s 292 of the Insolvency Act 2006, on 28 November 2013. The OA “strongly suspects that Mr Henderson had entered into, carried on, or taken part in the management or control of businesses during his bankruptcy, contrary to s 149 of the Act. Mr Henderson strongly refutes the Assignee’s suspicions…” (quoted from High Court judgment dated 18 March 2014 – CIV-2010-409-000559 [2014] NZHC 499). [Read more…]