Bridgecorp lawyer sticks to her guns - Petricevic knew

(L- R) Former Bridgecorp directors Rod Petricevic and Robert Roest. Photo / Brett Phibbs

A Crown witness in the trial of three Bridgecorp bosses is sticking to her guns and maintains she talked to former director Rod Petricevic about the failed finance company missing payments to investors.

Petricevic and fellow directors Rob Roest and Peter Steigrad are accused of making untrue statements in the prospectuses and offer documents of Bridgecorp and Bridgecorp Investments.

The trio face 10 Securities Act charges while Petricevic and Roest face an additional eight charges of knowingly making false statements in offer documents that Bridgecorp had never missed interest payments to investors, or repayments of principal.

The Financial Markets Authority, which is bringing the case against the directors, claims payments were missed from February 7, 2007.

Petricevic's lawyer Charles Cato said in his opening statements last year that his client was not aware of the defaults until a board meeting shortly before the Bridgecorp companies went into receivership in July 2007, owing $459 million to investors.

In the High Court at Auckland this morning Cato cross-examined former Bridgecorp general counsel Jo Wong.

In her evidence earlier this week, Wong said she talked to both Petricevic and Roest in early April 2007 about Bridgecorp missing a run of interest payments.

Wong was concerned because Bridgecorp's public offer documents, which she helped prepare, stated the company had never missed a payment.

"It was after the [March 2007] payment run was not made, I can't remember the exact date ... we generally discussed that there was a statement in the prospectus that payments had never been missed," she said.

Roest expressed the view that because Bridgecorp caught up on the payments, they were delayed rather than missed, she said.

This morning Cato suggested Wong could have discussed the matter with Petricevic in June of that year.

"No my memory is clear on that, in that it (was) in April," she said.

Wong said she remembers the situation clearly because it made her so uncomfortable she "couldn't sleep at night".

Although Cato asserted there was no discussion about the wording of the Bridgecorp prospectus, Wong stuck to her guns and said she recalled the conversation.

The trial continues today.