Former SPGI director Turnock pleads guilty on FMA charges

Former SPGI director Mark Turnock pleads guilty to charge of false financial statements

By Suze Metherell

Oct. 9 (BusinessDesk) - Mark Turnock, former company director of SPG Investment Company No 1 (SPGI), has pleaded guilty to a charge brought by the Financial Markets Authority over making false statements.

Turnock pleaded guilty in the Auckland High Court to the charge laid under the Financial Reporting Act over making false statements in 2008 and 2009 concerning SPGI financial documents, the financial markets watchdog said in a statement. He will be sentenced on Nov. 24.

His plea comes after Andrew Robinson, a former director of Strategic Planning Group jailed in July for six years over a $2.7 million fraud, pleaded guilty to charges of providing a broking service without being registered, knowingly making a false statement in his application to become an authorised financial adviser and two charges under the Financial Reporting Act of making false statements in the SPGI financial statements. He previously owned SPGI.

Robinson was jailed after pleading guilty to Serious Fraud Office charges that he stole $2.7 million of investor funds to repay other investors and cover various business and personal expenses, then made false statements in investment reports to hide the picture from investors.

The charges followed investigations by the Financial Markets Authority and the Serious Fraud Office into the activities of SPG and SPGI that began in 2012.

(BusinessDesk)

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