Trial aborted over Mutual Finance, Viaduct Capital collapse

Wednesday, 10 May 2017

The trial relating to the collapse of Mutual Finance and Viaduct Capital had been expected to last 12 weeks.

A nine-month trial brought by the Financial Markets Authority against four businessman related to the collapse of two finance companies has been aborted.

The FMA charges were brought in relation to the collapse of Mutual Finance and Viaduct Capital, which owed investors more than $17 million.

Paul Bublitz and co-defendants Richard Blackwood, Bruce McKay and Lance Morrison denied charges of theft by a person in a special relationship, making false statements to a trustee, and false statements by a promoter.

Another defendant, Peter Chevin, pleaded guilty to 10 charges of theft by a person in a special relationship on the morning before the trial began.

* Mutual Finance offender gets sentence discount for document handover**

But on Wednesday, an FMA spokesman said the trial against the remaining defendants, being heard before Justice Mark Woolford in the High Court at Auckland, had been 'aborted'.

The FMA was considering the judgment aborting the trial, he said, but would make no further comment.

The trial began last August and was expected to last 12 weeks.

Chevin was in March sentenced to nine months home detention on one less charge than the 10 he had pleaded guilty to.

Last month, Justice Woolford had dismissed an application from Bublitz to have the judge recused from the trial.

This related to findings Justice Woolford had made in sentencing Chevin, in which he called Chevin 'wilfully blind' and said he was asked to destroy documents by the 'principal defendant', Bublitz.

Bublitz claimed the factual findings made in relating to Chevin's offending led to an apparent bias in the ongoing trial against him.

In August, Crown prosecutor David Johnstone told Justice Woolford that 'the essence' of the Crown case was that Bublitz acquired and used the two finance companies to support his various property investments, and was assisted by his co-accused.

'In the course of Mr Bublitz's conduct, the Crown submits that the defendants deliberately misled investors and potential investors by failing to disclose a series of related party transactions,' Johnstone said.

A sixth person who was charged in the case, former Blue Chip chief executive Nick Wevers, died in 2014.

More to come.