The Prime Minister says there's room for the new financial markets super-regulator to examine penalties for white-collar crime, following what's has been criticised as a lenient sentence handed down to Blue Chip co-founder Mark Bryers.While convention pre
The Prime Minister says there’s room for the new financial markets super-regulator to examine penalties for white-collar crime, following what’s has been criticised as a lenient sentence handed down to Blue Chip co-founder Mark Bryers.
While convention prevents Ministers from commenting on sentences handed down by the courts, John Key said there was room for the Minister of Commerce and the incoming Financial Markets Authority to examine whether the right rules were in place under current legislation.
While investors needed to accept an element of market risk when they put money into finance companies, they were entitled, under law, for adequate protection against being “ripped off”, he said.
Whether current legislation provided that protection was a question for the Super Regulator to explore when it is set up in the Near Year, he said.
Mr Key made the comments after his post-Budget speech at a Trans-Tasman Business Circle lunch on Friday.
That was the day after Bryers was fined $33,750 and sentenced to 75 hours of community work in the Auckland District Court.
The sentence has been criticised as lenient, given the scale of loss suffered by more than 2000 investors when the Blue Chip collapsed in 2008, owing more than $84 million.
Mr Bryers faced 34 charges under the Companies Act and Financial Reporting Act for failing to maintain proper financial records and failing to attend a creditors meeting.
The charges were not related to fraud or investor loss and a jail term was only a possibility in one of the charges Bryers’ was sentenced on. The others were punishable with fines of between $5000 and $100,000
Mr Bryers apologised to investors in a statement released from his venture in Sydney – Northern Crest, previously known as Blue Chip Financial Solutions.
Last month the Government announced a new super regulator will be established to police New Zealand’s financial markets in the New Year.
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) will bring together the regulatory powers of the Securities Commission, the Ministry of Economic Development, including the Government Actuary, and the NZX.
Its role will be to enforce securities, financial reporting and company law as they apply to financial services and securities markets.
It will also regulate and oversee trustees, financial advisers and financial service providers, including people who offer investments.
It is the centrepiece in a raft of regulations intended to restore investor confidence in financial markets, damaged in the wake of finance company collapses.
