https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/...l-new-ventures
Failed company director borrowing money from family to bankroll new ventures
The director of a failed group of forestry companies has been left “financially destitute”; and has borrowed money from his adult children to bankroll new business ventures.
On Thursday afternoon, founder and sole director of the failed Forestlands group of companies Rowan Kearns was sentenced to four months’ community detention in Nelson District Court. About a dozen shareholders watched proceedings via an audiovisual link.
In January, Kearns pleaded guilty to a representative charge of making a false statement under the Financial Reporting Act relating to the non-disclosure of financial details when taking out a bank loan, two representative charges of failing to deliver financial statements, and a representative charge of failing to lodge financial statements.
The Forestlands group invested in forests, raising money from “mum and dad” investors.
Look what just showed up in Nelson Court pleading poverty and destitute
but borrowing from family not a problem for their new ventures
However, forests owned by the group were not harvested before the companies were put into liquidation in 2018 by the High Court in Nelson at the request of the Financial Markets Authority Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko (FMA), after investors protested to the regulator.
Instead, the forests were sold in 2015 without the knowledge of investors who owned non-voting shares in the Forestland companies.
Stuff reported in 2019 that Kearns said he didn't tell shareholders at the time because he feared that if the general market found out he would never obtain the price he did for the forests in Southland, Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa.
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