The last of the Dominion Finance directors facing court action pleaded guilty in the High Court in Auckland today to charges laid against them by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).
They had been due to go to trial in a few days.
Vance Arkinstall and Richard "Rick" Bettle pleaded guilty to five FMA charges each. Paul Forsyth pleaded guilty to seven of the Securities Act charges brought before Justice Sarah Katz.
The men had originally pleaded not guilty and were have gone on trial next week.
The charges of misleading investors were laid by the FMA against all directors of Dominion Finance after it collapsed into receivership in 2008 owing more than 5900 public debenture investors $176.9 million.
North South Finance, a subsidiary company that operated under the same directors, was placed in receivership in 2010 owing $31m to 3900 investors.
The summary of facts, which both parties agreed to, said while all three men acted honestly, they failed to perform their duties as directors.
This included failing to disclose related-party transactions and the deterioration of Dominion's overall financial position.
Arkinstall and Bettle originally faced all seven charges, however, the FMA reduced the number of charges to five as the time periods involved in a couple of cases were arguable.
Bettle stepped down as chairman and director of lines company Powerco yesterday, and resigned from the board of NZX-listed software company Diligent last week.
Arkinstall stepped down as chief executive of the Investment Savings and Insurance Association in 2010 after charges were laid against him.
Earlier in the month former Dominion bosses Ann Butler and Robert Barry Whale were sentenced to home detention for their part in the company's collapse. Butler's husband, Terry, was due to face the same charges but died of cancer this year.
Terry Butler also faced charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office before his death, on which Dominion Finance chief executive Paul Cropp was found guilty of in April.
Justice Graham Lang found Cropp guilty of knowingly breaching the trust deed of Dominion Finance and its subsidiary North South Finance. The deed said the company was not able to make loans to related parties.
Last month Cropp was sentenced to two years and seven months jail on the four Crimes Act charges of theft. The maximum possible sentence was five years' jail or a fine of up to $300,000 on each charge, but finance company directors in similar circumstances have been sentenced to home detention.
Bettle, Forsyth and Arkinstall are due to be sentenced on August 16.
- ? Fairfax NZ News
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8843019/Dominion-Finance-directors-plead-guilty
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