By 3 News online staff
Auckland financier Peter Huljich has been convicted of misleading KiwiSaver investors.
He had admitted one charge under Section 59 of the Securities Act in Auckland District Court in September.
HWM Holdings, formerly known as Huljich Wealthy Management of which Huljich was the managing director and chief investment officer, admitted two related charges.
Huljich has been fined $112,000, plus court costs of $132.89. A $300,000 fine is the maximum sentence for the charge he faced.
He had earlier sought to be discharged without conviction, with his lawyer Jack Hodder SC saying it would harm his career as a “businessman in a globalised world”.
He also said a conviction would give credibility to “sustained negative media coverage” about Huljich.
HWM Holdings has been fined $239,000 plus $95,000 in costs.
Seven other Securities Act charges against Huljich were dropped after he admitted the charge.
While Huljich admitted to breaking the law, Mr Hodder said his client's offence was a ''genuine mistake'' when he injected his own money into investments managed by HWM, which in turn had an effect on public securities in the form of Kiwisaver returns.
Hodder said the transactions were not a ''top up'' to give HWM a favourable ranking in the market, but the result of transactions designed to redress investment decisions which had caused losses for investors.
3 News