SPGI Director sentenced today

SPGI Director sentenced today

SPG Investment Company No. 1 Limited (SPGI) director Mark Andrew Turnock has today been sentenced in the Auckland High Court to four months home detention and 200 hours of community work for making false statements in the company’s financial statements.

In September 2015, Mr Turnock pleaded guilty to charges laid by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) under the Financial Reporting Act 1993. Fellow director and financial adviser Andrew Hrothgar Robinson was sentenced in October 2015 for making the same false statements as Mr Turnock, as well as providing a broking service without being registered and making a false statement of the purpose of obtaining AFA status.

The FMA took proceedings against Turnock (and Robinson) due to false statements made in SPGI’s 2008 and 2009 financial statements. The false statement was “There were no related party transactions during the year under review”. This statement was materially false because SPGI had entered into related party loans with Heka Developments limited (Heka), a company Mr Turnock was the sole director and a joint shareholder of. The loans to Heka totalled $600,000 and made up more than 50% of the company’s share capital.

Noting the court’s decision today, Paul O’Neil, FMA’s Head of Enforcement, said Mr Turnock’s sentencing reinforces the need for all company directors to ensure financial statements are free from any material mis-statement.

“The false statements resulted in investors being misled about the company’s financial position. By their guilty pleas, the directors have accepted responsibility for failing to fulfil their disclosure obligations to investors,” said Mr O’Neil.

Mr Turnock is now subject to a management ban which will prevent him from being a director or promoter, or having any role in the management of a company based in New Zealand for a period of five years from the date of this conviction.

ENDS

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