Four men, including two former Cabinet Ministers have been found guilty of charges relating to the collapse of Lombard Finance; Stuff reports:
Former cabinet ministers Sir Douglas Graham and Bill Jeffries, and two other former Lombard Finance directors, have been found guilty of four charges of making false statements.The verdicts, delivered in the High Court at Wellington this morning, also included one set of not guilty verdicts for Graham, Jeffries, Lawrence Bryant and Michael Reeves.
The charges they were found guilty of were:
Count one: Between December 24 2007 and April 3 2008 Authorised Reeves to sign on behalf of the defendants a registered prospectus that was distributed and included an untrue statement. The amended prospectus omitted significant adverse liquidity issues, including the company's deteriorating cash position since September 30 2007.
Count two: Distributed an advertisement that included an untrue statement relating to investment opportunities in unsecured subordinated notes dated December 28 2007.
Count three: Distributed an advertisement that included an untrue statement relating to investment opportunities in unsecured subordinated capital notes dated December 28 2007.
Count four: Distributed an advertisement that included and untrue statement relating to investment opportunities in secured debenture stock dated December 28 2007.
The were found not guilty in the fifth count of distributing an advertisement that included an untrue statement by sending a letter to investors on or about March 3 2008 enclosing a DVD that included and untrue statement.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment or fines of up to $300,000.
Lombard Finance was put into receivership in April 2008, owing $125 million to 4400 investors. Secured creditors were expected to be repaid less than 24 cents in the dollar.
These are indeed serious charges, with serious consequences. However the Judge has indicated that non-custodial sentences will be considered when the men appear for sentence at the end of March.
Lombard Finance collapsed in 2008 with debts of around $120 million. Secured creditors are expected to get around 24% of their investments back, but unsecured creditors are unlikely to receive anything. We're sure that those affected by collapse of Lombard will have strong feelings about the adequacy of any sentence passed by the Court.
And there's a salutory lesson for anyone who becomes a director in a public company; even a lifetime of service will not excuse proper checks and balances taking place, and due diligence and responsibility being exercised. Sir Douglas Graham and Bill Jefferies gave many years or service to the people who elected them; this morning, that service is forgotten, and their reputations have been tarnished. Oh, how the mighty are fallen.
5 comments:
I don't reckon Douglas Graham giving bucket loads of money to a former North Island tribe that invaded and subjected South Island tribes to land loss and slavery in a second full and final ( with relativity clauses)settlement to be public service.
Look, I'm going to take a stab in the dark - this Doug Graham, they say he's a former Cabinet Minister. That'd be with the Mighty National Party, wouldn't it? The Nats. The Tories. The Right Wing Blues, am I right? Now they're calling for the revocation of his knighthood. Good this, corrupt Nat. But what about this other guy, Jefferies? Is he a Nat also, another corrupt Right Winger Tory boy? I'm tempted to make assumptions about Right Wingers and National Party MPs based on the behaviour of these two, but better get my facts straight before I let rip about the lack of integrity and honesty that I see evident in the national party, past and present, but I'll wait until someone can confirm my suspicions. Perhaps Keeping Stock, you could clear this up for me? Is Bill Jefferies and ex-National Party MP? It wouldn't surprise me if he was, as I have suspected for a long time that the National Party is the party of cheats, liars and thieves. Look at English and Key for starters.
Bugger off Anonymous. If you knew as much about politics as you profess to, you'd know who Bill Jefferies was, but since you need educating, check this out:
William Patrick "Bill" Jeffries (born 1945) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.
He represented the Heretaunga electorate from 1981 to 1990, when he was defeated by a National candidate in a swing against Labour.
He was Minister of Justice from 1989 to 1990 in the Fourth Labour Government
On 24 February 2012 he was convicted, along with fellow former-Justice Minister Doug Graham and two other men, of making false statements to investors in his capacity as a director of Lombard finance.[1] He faces up to five years imprisonment and a fine of $300,000.
Thieves are far closer to your particular tree than you might be prepared to admit, or have you forgotten Philip Field? He's the only NZ MP ever imprisoned for corrupt behaviour whilst an MP, and he most certainly WASN'T a National MP. If you are going to make defamatory statements, set up your own blog, and stop trolling this one.
Also to be celebrated: neither of these two will be leaching free travel off the taxpayer any more. As a five-term MP, he was entitled (as a consequence of MP's self-interested feather-bedding) to a 90% rebate on private domestic and international travel. Jeffries was entitled to 60%. But thanks to amendments passed to the Speaker's Directions [PDF] two years ago, those entitlements are automatically stripped on conviction for serious crime. Its one way of cleaning up the tail of undeserving former Parliamentary parasites, I suppose.
Now that's a good plan. So how you going to nail Bolger, Shipley ,Clark, Sir Jeffery et al.
Don't bother about Lange he has cashed his chips.
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