South Canterbury Finance: $1.6b fraud verdict due today

South Canterbury Finance accused From left, Edward Sullivan, Robert White and Lachie McLeod at the Timaru District Courthouse yesterday. Photo / One News

The fate of three businessmen accused of masterminding the "biggest fraud in New Zealand's history" will be determined today.

Former South Canterbury Finance (SCF) chief executive Lachie McLeod, 50, and two of the company's former directors, lawyer Edward Sullivan, 72, and accountant Robert White, 70, deny a $1.6 billion fraud.

The trial in the High Court at Timaru, which concluded on August 18, spanned 61 days of evidence over five months. A verdict is due this morning.

The Crown alleged actions by the three accused "contributed directly" to SCF's collapse on August 31, 2010.

Because of the company's participation in the Crown retail deposit guarantee scheme, 35,000 investors were bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of $1.6 billion - of which $800 million was recovered.

All three denied the charges that include theft by a person in a special relationship, false statements by promoter, obtaining by deception and false accounting.

Lawyers for the three accused say the allegations are "baseless and devoid of any merit".

On December 7, 2011, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) revealed the charges amounted to the "biggest fraud in New Zealand's history".

But the defence argued the trio were never questioned over SCF's entry into the Crown retail deposit guarantee scheme.

Nor were they given the chance to explain what had in fact happened back in 2008 and the role they had played.

"That people can be charged with the biggest fraud in our history without being given the chance to explain is nothing short of mind-boggling," the defence said in their joint closing submissions.

Long-time SCF chairman, Timaru financier Allan Hubbard, died after a September 2011 car crash, aged 83 - just months after the SFO laid 50 fraud charges against him.

The Crown alleged Hubbard "had little interest" in meeting accounting or legal requirements, and that McLeod, Sullivan and White "did not just turn a blind eye" but took affirmative actions that breached the controls on the company.