SFO charges Access Brokerage’s Peter Marshall

Peter Marshall, chief executive of Access Brokerage when it collapsed last year, has been charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) with 13 counts of false accounting and two of making false statements.

"These charges arise from the accounting entries and liquidity reports that it is alleged disguised the true financial position of Access Brokerage Ltd over several years," SFO director David Bradshaw said in a statement.

No other person is being charged. Marshall was not immediately available to comment.

Mr Bradshaw said he would not comment further as the matter was now before the courts.

The discount brokerage, owned by former Olympic Games boss Bill Garlick, went into liquidation on September 6 last year after a $5 million deficit in client funds was uncovered.

Last month, a liquidators' report said Access suffered accounting discrepancies dating back to at least June 1998.

That report said, among other things, that expenses were understated and assets overstated in the firm's ledgers and management accounts.

Liquidators Michael Stiassny and Brendan Gibson, of Ferrier Hodgson are pondering whether to pursue legal action.

The New Zealand Stock Exchange is bringing disciplinary procedures against Access and Marshall and the Securities Commission is also investigating Access, particularly in relation to its banking arrangements.

The liquidators' initial report, in September, showed the firm had been using client funds to run the company for some time, creating a shortfall in its client trust account.

Investigations into Access were delayed for several months by Marshall's ill health.

- NZPA