KEY POINTS:
Bridgecorp founder Rod Petricevic has been adjudicated bankrupt.
The ruling was made just after 5pm at the High Court in Auckland.
Earlier today it emerged the former financier also owes troubled Hanover Finance $4 million.
Hanover was represented at today's hearing as a creditor in support of the bankruptcy application.
The finance company's lawyer said the debt was due to a personal guarantee Petricevic had given on a $4 million loan from Hanover to the now failed Bridgecorp.
He said the matter had not been raised in the proceedings before today because there had been issues surrounding serving Petricevic with the relevant documents.
Bridgecorp's receivers were seeking an order of bankruptcy against the company's former chief executive over a $576,000 personal tax bill the company paid for him in September 2006.
Petricevic has made various attempts to stave off the bankruptcy adjudication.
On Monday he unsuccessfully asked the Court of Appeal for a stay of proceedings, in order to gain time for an appeal against the original High Court judgement ordering him to pay the money.
That followed an attempt in the High Court last month to gain a stay. Justice Priestley granted him a stay for a week, on the grounds that he deposit the $576,000 in a court trust account. The deadline for depositing the money came and went with no sign of the funds.
Petricevic has told the court that he is insolvent, despite earning $4 million in the three years to July 2007.
The Appeal Court noted that financial records given as evidence were so incomplete as to prompt the question "What was being hidden?"
Bridgecorp, one of New Zealand's larger finance companies, collapsed last year owing 14,500 investors almost $460 million.
We want to hear from investors who've lost money or had their funds frozen by some of the smaller finance firms over the last couple of years. Tell us in 50 words what you lost, and what you've learned.
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