UPDATED Bettle exits Powerco and business mentors’ board as trial looms
(Updated to include Business in The Community resignation in lead and 4th graph, amends remaining roles in 5th graph.)
June 25 (BusinessDesk) - Rick Bettle has stepped down as chairman and director of lines company Powerco and business
mentoring organisation Business in The Community Limited, ahead of his July trial relating to failed lender Dominion
Finance.
Bettle ceased to be a director of Powerco NZ Holdings and a raft of subsidiary companies today, according to documents
filed with the Companies Office. Powerco spokesman Neil Holdom said the company had “no comment on the matter”.
His exit comes as a Powerco stake is up for grabs with Canada’s Brookfield Infrastructure Partners looking to sell its
42 percent holding of the lines company.
Separately, Business Mentors New Zealand Trust said it accepted Bettle’s resignation as chairman of Business in The
Community Limited.
Last week Bettle resigned from the board of Diligent Board Member Services and he withdrew from re-election at today’s
annual meeting, without giving a reason.
According to Companies Office filings, he now holds director roles at wood quality researcher WQI, failed lenders
Dominion Finance and North South Finance, Betirch Ltd and collapsed home audio equipment firm Eastern Hi Fi Group.
Bettle is scheduled to stand trial in the High Court in Auckland next month, accused of signing off on misleading offer
documents to investors in the failed finance companies Dominion Finance and North South Finance. Fellow ex-Dominion
directors Vance Arkinstall and Paul Forsyth are also defending the charges. Last week Bettle and Arkinstall applied to
be discharged from the case.
Earlier this month former Dominion directors Ann Butler and Robert Whale were sentenced to home detention, having
pleaded guilty to Securities Act charges.
Whale and an unnamed associate were found not guilty of fraud charges, though former Dominion boss Paul Cropp was
convicted and jailed over related party lending of some $13.6 million, which breached the lenders’ trust deed.
Dominion Finance Group had 5,937 debenture holders with $176.9 million invested at the time of receivership in 2008.
North South Finance was put in receivership in 2010. Both were subsidiaries of NZX-listed Dominion Finance Holdings,
which was placed in liquidation in 2009.
(BusinessDesk)