An accountant involved in the collapse of Dollarforce Financial Services has been sentenced after being charged with making false and misleading statements.
Appearing in the Count Court of Victoria, James Stephen Lewis was handed a 12-month prison sentence and released on entering a $2000 recognisance to be of good behaviour for a period of 18 months.
As a result of his conviction he is automatically disqualified from managing any company for five years.
He is the second person to be convicted following the collapse of Dollarforce, with Clestus Weerappah, a former director, jailed for four years in September.
Lewis was found guilty of one charge of omitting or authorising the omission of material information in a prospectus lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
At the time of the offence, Lewis was a director of Altitude Property Limited, one of the companies in the Dollarforce group.
According to ASIC, the prospectus failed to disclose information that was relevant to investors and/or potential investors buying shares in Altitude.
Specifically, it failed to disclose that an incentive payment agreement had been entered into between Altitude and Alamanda Property Investments.
The incentive payment agreement saw money collected from investors paid to an entity related to Weerappah, who was also a director of Altitude.
Over $1.4 million was paid out under the terms of the agreement.
