Insured Group’s $50,000 fine was handed down today – the same day it lost its chairman Bill Jeffries who quit after being found guilty of Securities Act charges late last month.
Mr Jeffries, a former cabinet minister, and three former Lombard directors - Sir Douglas Graham (also a former cabinet minister) Lawrie Bryant (former press officer to the Queen) and former Lombard chief executive Michael Reeves – were found guilty of signing off on untrue statements in Lombard Finance offer documents.
It is understood Mr Jeffries, a former cabinet minister, plans to appeal the decision.
He has been replaced on the Insured Group board by Barry Driscoll.
Mr Reeves also quit Insured Group’s board last year – ahead of his trial.
His recent convictions write another chapter in the offending history of the financier’s former CEO.
In 2007, Mr Reeves and chief financial officer Alan Lawson Beddie were convicted and fined a total of $37,000 for misleading investors.
Messrs Reeves, Beddie and Lombard Financial Services protested their innocence for more than a year, before pleading guilty in the Wellington District Court in 2006 to a reduced number of charges of deceiving and misleading investors by hyping up the values and security surrounding two multi-million dollar retirement village contributory mortgage schemes.
The charges involved misrepresentation of the value of the security.
Georgina Bond
Mon, 05 Mar 2012
Mon, 05 Mar 2012
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Insured Group chairman quits after Lombard conviction
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