Last OPI Pacific director cops community work; A$100k fine
By Paul McBeth
Sept. 25 (BusinessDesk) - David Anderson, a former director of OPI Pacific Finance, has been sentenced to 300 hours
community work and ordered to pay A$100,000 in reparations to investors after pleading guilty to misleading investors in
the High Court in Auckland.
Anderson was the fourth and final director to plead guilty to two charges under the Securities Act for distributing an
advertisement and signing off on a prospectus that both contained misleading statements in 2007 brought by the Financial
Markets Authority, the market regulator said in a statement. Anderson, Craig White, Mark Lacy and Jason Maywald are also
banned from being a director, promoter, or manager of any incorporated or unincorporated body in New Zealand for five
years.
"In bringing this case to a close, the four guilty pleas and convictions show that each of the directors have accepted
responsibility for their failure to fulfil their disclosure obligations to investors," FMA acting head of enforcement
and investigations Paul O'Neil said. "This case demonstrates that the FMA will pursue those it suspects of misconduct,
even when they are based outside of New Zealand, in order to protect and promote the integrity of our financial
markets."
All four former directors received community service sentences, and the A$400,000 they were collectively ordered to pay
will go to the failed lender's receiver to be distributed to investors.
The reparations orders are in Australian dollars, because under New Zealand law those offers are made by the defendants,
who are Australian-based.
OPI provided finance to commercial property developers and investors and was tipped into receivership in September 2009
and then liquidation two years later.
More than 10,000 investors were owed about $247 million. As at July this year, investors had been repaid 30.23 cents in
the dollar.
(BusinessDesk)