SFO appeals not guilty verdict

MATT NIPPERT

Last updated 14:05 22/08/2012

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The Serious Fraud Office will appeal the not guilty verdicts against two former directors of failed finance company Capital + Merchant.

Neal Nicholls and Wayne Douglas were found not guilty following a trial in the Auckland High Court in July over $14.4 million in lending to a Palmerston North student accommodation complex.

The SFO had alleged the loan should have been disclosed as related party.

The verdict marked the sole courtroom defeat for the SFO in its finance company prosecutions, and the office's outgoing chief executive Adam Feeley said: "There are important points of law that have significance not only to this case, but also the ongoing finance company prosecutions."

Nicholls and Douglas, along with Owen Tallentire, were found guilty in a separate trial over fraudulent transaction totalling $28m.

Nicholls and Douglas are scheduled to be sentenced on this matter on August 31.

Capital + Merchant collapsed in 2009 owing $167 million to about 7500 investors.

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