Westpoint directors charged
Former Westpoint directors Norman Carey and Graeme Rundle have been charged on two breaches of the Corporations Act.
If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of five years in jail for each offence.
The charges, brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), allege that the men contravened sections 184(2)(a) and 601FD of the Act.
Specifically, ASIC alleges that Carey and Rundle breached their duties as officers at Westpoint Management, and Westpoint Corporation.
It is alleged that the breaches occurred when the two men executed deeds extending the time for Westpoint Corporation to exercise an option to purchase Warnbro Fair Shopping Centre and adjoining land.
The allegations further state that these breaches involved a transfer of the option to purchase the shopping centre to a Carey family trustee company, Bowesco.
Westpoint Management was the responsible entity for the managed investment scheme, Warnbro Fair Syndicate, which owned the shopping centre and surrounds. Carey and Rundle were officers at both Westpoint Management and Westpoint Corporation at the time of the alleged offences.
The Commonwealth Director of Prosecutions will bring the action before the court when the matter returns on 15 July.
Rundle will be sentenced on two separate charges next month, after a jury found him guilty of making false or misleading statements to a financial institution.
The statements were made in support of $71 million credit facility application to fund a Westpoint development of the Scots Church project in York Street, Sydney.
The verdict was handed down on 24 June, and Rundle will be sentenced in the District Court of NSW on 12 August.
AUTHOR
Angela Welsh
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