However, the Financial Markets Authority, which is bringing the case against him, alleges he was a prime mover at Five Star if not, at times, a controller of events.
After failed attempts to reverse his guilty plea, a disputed facts hearing to determine Williams' culpability began yesterday in the Auckland District Court.
Following this hearing, Williams is due to be sentenced.
Former Five Star director Marcus MacDonald, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to misleading investors, appeared as a Crown witness at yesterday's hearing and said Williams had not been involved in preparing the allegedly misleading prospectus.
But during his evidence, MacDonald told the court how the defendant had been involved with Five Star Finance since its formation in the early 1990s.
At this time, Williams did not want to be involved as a director of Five Star because some adverse publicity had arisen through his ties with a company called Dairy Containers Ltd, MacDonald said. Rather than being an employee of the company outright, it was agreed that Williams would work for another Five Star director, Nicholas Kirk. Through Kirk, Williams' partner (now his wife), also held shares in the firm. Williams typically worked three days a week at Five Star Finance but Kirk, who also appeared as a witness yesterday, said the board regarded the man as a "senior executive".
The hearing continues today with evidence from Kirk, followed by that of another former Five Star director, Anthony Bowden.
Five Star Consumer Finance collapsed in 2007 owing $54 million to 2300 investors who to date have received 23c in the dollar back. Five Star Finance also fell into receivership in 2007, owing $42 million.
