FMA targets estate of deceased director

The $6.8 million Remuera mansion where Ann Butler served her home detention. Picture / Richard Robinson

New Zealand's market watchdog is targeting the estate of deceased director Terry Butler in its lawsuit against the former board of Dominion Finance.

Butler died in March last year and his fellow directors - Vance Arkinstall, Richard Bettle, Ann Butler, Paul Forsyth and Robert Barry Whale - later all admitted to misleading Dominion investors or those in its sister firm North South Finance.

They were all sentenced to home detention, community work and ordered to pay reparations by the High Court last year.

Ann Butler served her home detention in a $6.8 million Remuera mansion that was so big that probation staff were unsure of the whole house could be electronically monitored.

Butler, according to court documents from the time, said if this was the case, she would stay on only one side of the four-bedroom home, which has a theatre, a wine cellar, a library and a 15-metre pool.

Prior to his passing, Terry Butler lived with his wife at the mansion, the title of which changed hands in April to a company called Executive Trustees.

It was previously owned by Makuri Saunders Trustee, which Ann Butler is the sole shareholder of.

As well as the criminal charges which the defendants admitted, the Financial Markets Authority also brought civil action against Dominion's board. The FMA, under the Securities Act, has applied for declarations of civil liability and civil pecuniary penalties of up to $500,000 against each of the directors

In the High Court at Auckland this afternoon, the FMA applied to join the executors of Terry Butler's estate into the civil case

There was no appearance from the executor, Ann Butler, and the application was granted by Associate Judge Roger Bell after a short hearing.

While the estate was joined, the lawyer appearing for the FMA, Rina See, said the proceedings were still stayed.

A stay was put on the litigation in 2010 pending the outcome of the criminal case against the Dominion directors.

Associate Judge Bell said it would be timely for the parties to focus their attention on the case and directed a conference to take place in the New Year.