Guilty verdict in long-running finance company case

Tuesday, 5 February 2019

Bublitz and his co-defendants were first charged in March 2014.

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has welcomed a guilty verdict handed down to three businessmen accused of crimes committed during the global financial crisis.

Paul Bublitz, Bruce McKay and RIchard Blackwood were accused of deliberately misleading investors to try to save failing investments.

The case has been running for years.

Bublitz and his co-defendants were first charged in March 2014, but the trial, which began in August 2016, was aborted after it emerged the Crown, and the FMA as prosecuting authority, failed to disclose 14,619 documents.

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Auckland High Court judge Mark Woolford aborted the trial as he concluded there was a reasonable danger of miscarriage of justice.

The men were awarded $115,000 in damages at the time, including $40,000 from the FMA. The FMA was also ordered to pay $10,000 to the Ministry of Justice.

They were the subject of a judge-alone retrial last year.

McKay and Blackwood were directors of Viaduct Capital and Bublitz was on the board of Mutual Finance when the firms went into receivership, owing investors $17 million.

They faced six charges of making a false statement, seven charges of false statement by a promoter and 17 charges of theft by a person with a special relationship.

Bublitz was found guilty of four charges of theft by a person in a special relationship and two charges of false statement by a promoter. He was sentenced to 3 years two months imprisonment for each of the charges.

McKay was found guilty of three charges of theft by a person in a special relationship. He was sentenced to 12 months home detention for each charge.

Blackwood was found guilty of four charges of theft by a person in a special relationship. He was sentenced to nine months home detention for each charge.

All sentences were top be serviced concurrently

A spokesman for the FMA said it welcomed the judgment.

'This has been an important case. We will consider the judgment and await any further developments in the case before making further comment.'