Home detention for National Finance director

18 September 2012

Home detention for National Finance director

The former National Finance director Carol Braithwaite has today been sentenced to ten months home detention and 300 hours community work, in a prosecution taken by the Financial Markets Authority.

Ms Braithwaite was convicted in July on one charge of making untrue statements in a prospectus for National Finance 2000 Ltd.

“Today’s sentence highlights the fact that directors are accountable for disclosure obligations and that they cannot rely on what others tell them,” said FMA Head of Enforcement Belinda Moffat.

“All directors are responsible for having proper oversight and understanding of the business and its financial performance,” Ms Moffat said.

National Finance collapsed in 2006 owing over $20 million to more than 2,000 investors.

Background:

FMA alleged that Carol Braithwaite is guilty in respect of untrue statements made in the registered prospectus for National Finance 2000 Limited (in receivership and liquidation), dated 22 September 2005. These statements included: National Finance's provisioning for bad debts; related party lending including interest free unsecured loans to Ms Braithwaite and her de facto partner, Trevor Allan Ludlow, to purchase four luxury apartment s in Fiji; the types of assets or security held by National Finance.

Carol Braithwaite is the third and final director of National Finance to be charged. Earlier this year, in a case taken by FMA, another director Trevor Allan Ludlow was sentenced to nine months imprisonment after pleading guilty to making untrue statements in a National Finance prospectus. He was already serving five years and seven months imprisonment for theft by a person in a special relationship and false accounting, in a separate case taken by the Serious Fraud Office.

In June this year, director Anthony Banbrook pleaded guilty to making untrue statements in a National Finance prospectus. He is yet to be sentenced.

ENDS

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