Watson, who is alleged to have shared information about the upcoming rebrand with Lindsay and Giguiere, is not said to have financially profited from the insider trading.
The SEC letter said Watson is now represented by Neil Williams and Mark Winters of Gunnercooke UK. Williams is described on the firm’s website as a partner specialising in cases of “white-collar crime”, while Winters is a former officer with London’s metropolitan police force.
The SEC said it would continue discussions with Williams and Winters and if final settlement agreement could not be reached would “move for... a default judgement against Watson”.
The late move in the Southern District of New York court follows a similar eleventh-hour appointment of legal representation at the High Court at Auckland where liquidators of Watson’s Cullen Investments group have been progressing bankruptcy proceedings.
Last month liquidators - having previously secured an uncontested summary judgement against Watson for $59.9m related to tens of millions of dollars in tax avoidance dating back decades - filed applications to bankrupt Watson, but found he was now represented by Jack Cundy.
Lawyers acting for liquidators laid out the two years it took to serve Watson in the case, resorting to having to push papers “under the front gate” of an offshore address and resulting in a High Court judgement describing the defendant as “elusive and obstructive,” and sought to avoid further delays.
Cundy told the Auckland court claims Watson had been dodging the case were “not accepted,” and he would be opposing the bankruptcy application and protesting the court’s jurisdiction to hear the matter.
Questions sent this week to Watson about the cases went unanswered.
These developments are the latest in a tectonic crumbling of Watson’s position, from the heights of the NBR rich list and national business celebrity during the 1990s to an apparently impecunious one-time prisoner facing mammoth legal challenges on multiple continents.
A titanic struggle with his former business partner, Sir Owen Glenn - waged in international courts for more than a decade that burnt tens of millions in legal bills on both sides - saw Glenn use court awards in his favour to chase Watson personally, and his family members in New Zealand and in the United States, around the globe seeking $82m.
In late 2020 lawyers acting for Glenn managed to have Watson thrown in prison - a rare outcome in a civil case - for contempt of court after finding he had hidden assets in a “rainy day account” under his mother’s name. Watson served four months in London’s Pentonville prison.
Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism - including twice being named Reporter of the Year - and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting from business newspapers and national magazines.
