The former Group Chief Financial Officer of embattled insurer CBL, Carden Mulholland, has been ordered to pay a pecuniary penalty of $641,250 for breaches of the continuous disclosure requirements of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMCA).
Mulholland has also agreed to pay a further $606,216.53 in costs. It’s understood to the first time a New Zealand court has considered the liability of a CFO acting as an accessory to a company’s contravention under the FMCA.
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) brought proceedings against him after reaching a settlement with Peter Harris (the former managing director of parent company CBLC) and four former independent non-executive directors in 2023 and 2024. Each admitted contraventions of the continuous disclosure regime and were ordered by the court to pay a total penalty of $11.28 million.
In fining Mulholland, the court said he had the required elements of knowledge and participation to make him personally liable as an accessory.
Another proceeding brought by the FMA alleging breaches of the FMCA in relation to CBLC’s Initial Public Offering in 2015 has been set down for a six-week trial beginning in April 2026.
Read the decision here
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