May Wang in court, returning tomorrow to face creditors

UBNZ's May Wang. Photo / supplied

The Chinese businesswoman orchestrating a buy-up of the Crafar dairy empire has made the first of two scheduled appearances in court this week in relation to failed business dealings.

May Wang made a brief appearance in the Auckland District Court this morning on charges brought by the Ministry of Economic Development in relation to records of her property and hotel company Dynasty Group, now in liquidation.

The charges include that between August 31, 2005 and May 29, 2008, she failed to keep adequate accounting records as the director of the Dynasty Group, and on or about October 10, 2008 she failed to supply the liquidator with information about the business accounts of the company and assist with the liquidation to the best of her ability.

Judge Gittos remanded Wang on bail to reappear for a sentence indication hearing on July 15.

Wang returns to court tomorrow to face creditors in the Dynasty Group, to whom she owes $22 million.

Westpac has applied to the high court to bankrupt Wang over debts of $620,000.

Wang's lawyer Paul Sills previously told nzherald.co.nz his client plans to use money she earns from consultancy work during the next three years to pay creditors.

Those creditors include Dominion Finance, Equitable General Insurance, Dominion Finance Group, the IRD, ANZ, Golden Funds, Allied Nationwide Finance and the Wine Country Credit Union.

She has offered them a minimum payment of $500,000, which amounts to about 2c in the dollar.

They were due to vote on her proposal today, but this has been moved to to later this month.

Wang says the proposal would provide creditors with a much better result than if she were made bankrupt.

Wang is part of the bid by Chinese investors UBNZ to buy 16 dairy farms previously owned by the Crafar family and currently in receivership.

On Friday the High Court at Auckland rejected a bid by UBNZ Assets Holdings which argued that it did not require consent from the Overseas Investment Office to purchase the farms.

The conditional sale agreement is subject to Overseas Investment Office approval and can be overtaken by a better offer.

Tenders for the farms close on June 23.