LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – Mr Anthony Rechner, the former Chairman of Perth-based mining exploration company, Eagle Bay Resources (Eagle Bay), has been sentenced to 16 months jail, fully suspended, upon entering into a bond in the amount of $50,000 to be of good character for a period of two years.
On 14 September 2007, Mr Rechner, aged 60, was found guilty by a jury in the District Court of Western Australia of four alternate charges of making materially misleading statements or statements that he ought reasonably to have known were materially misleading at the time they were made.
In sentencing, Judge Mazza noted that the integrity of the market is put at risk by conduct such as Mr Rechner’s, and that he had escaped jail by the barest of margins.
He further noted that people in charge of companies must understand they must be scrupulous in the information they provide to the market.
The charges relate to a number of false and misleading statements made by Mr Rechner in respect of Eagle Bay’s ‘Myall Creek Gold Project’ in a media release and an associated announcement made by Eagle Bay to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) on 10 September 2003.
The jury found that comments made by Mr Rechner to the ASX and in the media release about the presence of copper and gold at the Myall Creek site were not substantiated by the results of a drilling program undertaken four months earlier.
‘Confidence in Australia’s capital markets relies on them being fair and transparent. Mr Rechner’s actions undermine confidence in our markets. ASIC will ensure that directors of publicly listed companies who make false or misleading statements to the market are brought to account’, said ASIC’s Executive Director of Enforcement, Ms Jan Redfern.
The charges were laid following a referral from the Australian Stock Exchange and prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
For further information contact:
Michael van Maanen
ASIC Media Unit
Telephone: 02 9911 2658
Mobile: 0412 500 351
