WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- Senior executives of Equiticorp, once one of New Zealand's largest investment companies, were found guilty of fraud and conspiracy in the High Court Friday after one of the longest and most complex trials in New Zealand corporate history.
Equiticorp chairman and founder Allan Hawkins, 51, was found guilty of seven charges and taken into custody for sentencing early in the new year.
The charges against Hawkins related to transactions totaling about $270 million, analysts said.
Three other Equiticorp executive directors and a senior executive were also found guilty on six of 11 charges and were released on bail pending sentencing next year.
The verdicts came after trials lasting five-and-a-half months.
The trial centered on an alleged money laundering network known as the 'Yeoman's Loop' in which Hawkins and company lawyer Paul Darvell, 45, allegedly arranged financing for Equiticorp's $166 million purchase of NZ Steel from the government in 1987 and also on the nature and means by which the investment team was paid bonuses and received benefits from the float of an Equiticorp offshoot in Hong Kong.
Darvell was found not guilty on all eight charges he faced and discharged.
Hawkins, who declared bankruptcy last year, conducted his own defense at the trial.
The Equiticorp group was one of New Zealand's largest investment companies until the 1987 stock market crash. The group was placed understatutory control in January 1989 to achieve an orderly liquidation that is still pending.
