Last OPI Pacific director, David Anderson, sentenced to community work, A$100k penalty

Friday 25th September 2015

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.co.nz

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