ASIC brings charges against Wespoint duo

Former Westpoint directors Norman Carey and Graeme Rundle, of Perth, Western Australia, have been charged in the Magistrates Court in Perth on two criminal charges each, brought by ASIC.

ASIC alleges they contravened sections 184(2)(a) and 601FD of the Corporations Act.

Specifically, ASIC alleges that in January 2006, Carey and Rundle breached their duties as officers of Westpoint Management Limited and Westpoint Corporation Pty Ltd and that “these breaches occurred when they executed deeds extending the time for Westpoint Corporation Pty Ltd to exercise an option to purchase the Warnbro Fair Shopping Centre and adjoining land (WFSC)”.

ASIC alleges the breaches also involved transfer of the option to purchase WFSC to Bowesco Pty Ltd, a Carey family trustee company.

Each charge carries a maximum penalty of five years’ jail.

At the time of the alleged offences, Carey and Rundle were officers of Westpoint Management Limited, the responsible entity for the managed investment scheme Warnbro Fair Syndicate, which owned the WFSC. They were also officers of Westpoint Corporation Pty Ltd.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting the matter, which returns to court on July 15, 2011.

On Friday, June 24, 2011, a jury found Graeme Rundle guilty on two charges of making false or misleading statements to a financial institution in support of a $71 million credit facility application to fund a Westpoint building of the Scots Church project in York Street, Sydney.

He will be sentenced in respect of the Scots Church project in the District Court of NSW on August 12, 2011.