Guilty pleas entered in OPI Pacific Finance case

Media release
MR No. 2015 – 37
21 August 2015

Two former directors of OPI Pacific Finance, Mark Lawrence Lacy and Jason Robert Duncan Maywald, have today pleaded guilty to two charges under the Securities Act 1978 in a prosecution commenced by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) in 2013.

The charges relate to a registered prospectus and an advertisement distributed in 2007, which the FMA alleges included untrue statements.

The FMA’s director of enforcement and investigations, Belinda Moffat welcomed the guilty pleas entered today ahead of trial. 

“In pleading guilty, Messrs Lacy and Maywald have accepted responsibility for their failure to fulfil their disclosure obligations to investors,” she said.

The trial of the remaining defendants, who are also former directors of OPI, David Mark Anderson and Craig Robert White, is scheduled to commence on 5 October 2015.

Messrs Lacy and Maywald will be sentenced on 18 September 2015.

ENDS

Contact:
Shae Skellern
021 847 192
09 300 0465
[email protected]

Background

OPI provided finance to entities involved in commercial property investments and developments. It went into receivership in September 2009 and was put into liquidation in November 2011.

More than 10,000 investors were owed approximately $247 million. As at July 2015, OPI investors had been repaid 30.23 cents in the dollar.

Related

Case: OPI Finance Limited

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