The new head of the Serious Fraud Office says he'll decide by March 31 if people it is investigating over their finance company activities will be charged.However, Adam Feeley said it may be too late for some people to face prosecution.Mr Feeley, who took
The new head of the Serious Fraud Office says he'll decide by March 31 if people it is investigating over their finance company activities will be charged.
However, Adam Feeley said it may be too late for some people to face prosecution.
Mr Feeley, who took over the top in November, said the SFO had taken far too long to bring charges, and finance companies were now on top of its priority list.
The SFO had yet to charge any finance company directors, more than two and half years after the collapse of Bridgecorp left 14,500 investors $460 million out of pocket.
Mr Feeley said he was loathe to criticise his predecessor, but the SFO could have moved faster.
He said that in some cases there had been "great difficulty" getting evidence because it had to come from overseas and that was often difficult and bureaucratic.
He said in other cases, the SFO had faced challenges in getting enough information when people were not willing or able to co-operate.
He said the SFO could have done more to prioritise the cases. The previous CEO had felt the need to balance the finance company cases with others on its books and there were competing priorities.
Mr Feeley said he was taking a different approach.
"Finance companies are the number-one priority," he said.
However, the slow response time could now make it harder for some charges to be laid.
The SFO would have to take the passage of time into account but if there was a legitimate reason to look at a finance company, it would still do so even if the case was years old.
