By Alastair Bull
Rod Petricevic has begun a six-and-a-half-year jail sentence for misleading Bridgecorp investors, but his time in front of the courts isn't over yet.
Petricevic was jailed after being found guilty last month of charges under the Crimes Act, Companies Act and the Securities Act for misleading Bridgecorp investors.
But he still faces charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over the alleged fraudulent spending of Bridgecorp money on a luxury boat and a business associated with an Auckland woman.
The SFO alleges Petricevic and Bridgecorp finance director Rob Roest ensured Bridgecorp paid for the acquisition and operation costs of the luxury launch Medici, using $1.8 million of Bridgecorp funds.
It also alleges Petricevic made payments totalling $1.2 million of Bridgecorp funds to ABb, a business operated by Janita Wright, an acquaintance of Petricevic, a business the SFO says "was, in essence, a sham to enable Mr Petricevic to make fraudulent payments from Bridgecorp to Ms Wright".
The trial on these charges is due to start in September.
Bridgecorp collapsed in July 2007 owing $459 million to 14,500 debenture investors and $21 million to capital note investors.
"You made false statements which misled a substantial number of people into investing or reinvesting into Bridgecorp when if they had been told the truth, they would not have reinvested," Justice Geoffrey Venning said in the High Court at Auckland on Thursday.
Roest, found guilty of the same charges as Petricevic, and Peter Steigrad, found guilty of six Securities Act charges will be sentenced on May 18.
Another director, Gary Urwin, sentenced to two years in jail after admitting he misled investors, is to appeal his sentence, while former chairman Bruce Davidson was sentenced last October to home detention and ordered to pay $500,000 in reparation.
NZN