Errant Directors To Face Harsher Penalties?
August 28th, 2009
The Securities Commission wants some company directors banned for life, and more sent to jail, as part of an overhaul of securities laws.
At present, errant directors can only be banned for up to five years. But the Commission is looking to take a harder line, saying it wants the ban extended to life and any director who has served jail time excluded from being considered a “fit and proper” person to run a company. The change would prevent Cynotech chairman and CEO Allan Hawkins being a director - he was sentenced to six years’ jail in 1993 on seven fraud and conspiracy charges.
The Commission is also pushing for a raft of other regulatory changes in the wake of the finance company meltdown and global financial crisis, including further measures to prevent company directors and owners from hiding their… assets from creditors. Commerce Minister Simon Power has confirmed “some relatively big changes” could be on the way, with a review of the 31-year-old Securities Act expected to take place later this year. However he says changes of the nature the Commission wants may not be on the agenda.
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