Former Bridgecorp director Robert Roest faces being struck off the professional body for chartered accountants. Photo / Dean Purcell
Former Bridgecorp director Robert Roest faces being struck off the professional body for chartered accountants. Photo / Dean Purcell
Jailed Bridgecorp chief financial officer Rob Roest is due to appeal his conviction and sentence tomorrow.
Roest, a discharged bankrupt, was found guilty of last year making untrue statements in the failed finance company's offer documents. The company collapsed in 2007 owing $459 million to 14,500 investors.
Alongside Bridgecorp's managingdirector Rod Petricevic, Roest was also convicted on Crimes Act charges last year because of statements in Bridgecorp's offer documents that the company had never missed a payment of interest or principal to investors.
According to evidence tabled in a four-month-long High Court case brought by the Financial Markets Authority, Bridgecorp began missing payments to investors on February 7, 2007.
Roest was sentenced to six and a half years' jail on the FMA charges but is due to appeal both his conviction and sentence tomorrow.
While Roest had some help from an amicus in preparing his submissions, he will represent himself in the Court of Appeal without a lawyer.
The former Bridgecorp director had another three months added to his jail term last year when he pleaded guilty to three charges brought by the Serious Fraud Office. These charges were over his role in a $3.5 million fraudulent acquisition and financing of a luxury launch.
