Bridgecorp bosses get five year ban

Rod Petricevic (L) and Robert Roest in court in July last year. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Bridgecorp boss Rod Petricevic and business associate Rob Roest have been banned from directing or managing any company in New Zealand for the next five years, the Companies Office said yesterday.

Deputy Registrar of Companies Peter Barker said he had prohibited Petricevic and Roest after the pair, who already face criminal charges in relation to the July 2007 collapse of Bridgecorp Group of companies, had failed to prove that they were not at least partly responsible for the companies' demise.

The Ministry of Economic Development's National Enforcement Unit had provided reports to the registrar of companies alleging "mismanagement including: misleading information contained in the prospectus; defaults of the payment of principal and interest; misleading information provided to the trustee; and, in the case of Petricevic, transactions involving personal interest".

Barker said Petricevic and Roest's failings were serious and fundamental and of "such a depth that any one of the matters alone would have been enough to prohibit them from acting as company managers or directors".

Bridgecorp collapsed in July 2007, owing about $460 million to 14,500 investors. According to an April update from receivers Colin McCloy and Maurice Noone of PricewaterhouseCoopers, debenture investors are likely to receive less than 10c in the dollar of their investment back.

The Registrar of Companies has brought criminal charges against Petricevic and Roest alleging Bridgecorp staff were told to lie to investors who complained about late interest payments by blaming a bank error or computer glitch.

It has said the finance company was so short of money that in April 2007, three months before it collapsed, it had only $45,000 available to meet $2 million in payments due to investors.

The Securities Commission has also begun civil proceedings against the pair and Bridgecorp directors Bruce Davidson, Gary Urwin and Peter Steigrad which may pave the way for investors to take further action to pursue compensation claims.