Hotchin's assets remain frozen

Mark Hotchin Photo / Brett Phibbs

Mark Hotchin has failed in his bid to overturn a court order freezing his New Zealand-based assets, it was revealed this afternoon.

The Securities Commission used its extended powers to freeze Hotchin's assets to ensure there is money available for investors if they wish to take civil claims against him.

This was the first time the commission used such force since the Securities Act was amended in 2006, and the move was made in the public interest, the organisation said at the time.

Hotchin's camp launched an appeal against the decision, and that hearing went to court in February at the High Court at Auckland.

Certain details, mainly personal financial details, were placed under a suppression order during the proceedings.

Justice Helen Winkelmann released a minute on the judgment on Friday stating that a temporary suppression order had been placed over the judgment, and that its contents could not be published until further notice from the court.

This was done to address the possibility that an application for a suppression order would be made for part of the judgment.

Property financier Hanover froze $554 million owed to 16,500 investors in 2008.

Hotchin and co-founder Eric Watson took $91 million in dividends in the years before the company defaulted on payments to investors.

The investors subsequently approved a moratorium that pledged to pay them back over five years. Then a year later, in December 2009, Hanover investors agreed to swap their Hanover debentures for shares in Allied Farmers.