Activists call for Curtin to be suspended

Donal Curtin is facing fresh allegations. Photo / Paul Estcourt

The Commerce Commission has limited the responsibilities of embattled commissioner Donal Curtin after fresh allegations relating to his personal role as an investment adviser.

But an investment activist group says the commission's actions to deal with Curtin's alleged conflicts of interest do not go far enough and is calling for Commerce Minister Simon Power to suspend him from all duties.

Curtin, who was formerly BNZ bank's chief economist, was at the helm of financial adviser Vestar's investment committee when it invested in a series of failed finance companies, including Bridgecorp.

The commission - which first began investigating Vestar in September 2008 when Curtin was just two months into the deputy chairman's role - yesterday announced that new legal action relating to his role as a consultant to Vestar had led to the decision to suspend him from decision-making duties.

"Until all of the proceedings are resolved, Curtin has been allocated to tasks that do not involve him in decision-making related to enforcement actions under either the Fair Trading Act or Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act," the commission said.

"Other steps are being taken to ensure that conflicts of interest will not arise."

But EUFA (Exposing Unacceptable Financial Activities) co-ordinator Suzanne Edmonds said the commission was not going far enough.

The group, which sparked the initial investigation into Curtin's actions, wrote to Power yesterday, calling for him to suspend Curtin.

"The commission's failure to act in a timely fashion is negligent, as little has changed since Curtin resigned in March 2009 as deputy chair of the commission," Edmonds said.

"Investors will be asking what prompted this announcement now rather than last March.

"It is unacceptable to take this amount of time and it is viewed as a deliberate attempt to stymie procedures and run out the statute of limitations, preventing further action. The commission is failing in its duty when it fails to provide adequate protection to the public."

Curtin and former Vestar directors Kelvin Syms, Simon Purvis, Kenneth Swain, Andre Gaylard and Jason Maywald were already facing two separate legal suits when the new allegations involving Curtin emerged yesterday.

The original proceedings are from Auckland and New Plymouth and involve hundreds of investors who are upset over advice given through the Vestar network that recommended people plough money into failed finance companies Bridgecorp, Capital & Merchant and Property Finance Securities.

An independent investigation conducted by Wellington QC Hugh Rennie into whether Curtin made the appropriate disclosures on his involvement with Vestar when he took on his role, found Curtin's lack of disclosure was not intentional and that the Ministry of Economic Development was partly at fault for giving Curtin only cursory scrutiny when he was hired.

Power said last night he was calling for more information from commission chairman Mark Berry and Curtin. "I will also be taking advice from Crown Law on the options available to me."