This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE former chair of childcare group G8 Education, Jenny Hutson, has been charged in the Brisbane Magistrates’ Court following an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
The charges were brought by ASIC following an investigation into a takeover bid made in 2015 by G8 Education Limited (G8 Education) for Affinity Education Group Limited (Affinity).
In July and August 2015, G8 Education announced takeover bids for all the shares in Affinity, which was at the time also an ASX-listed company.
Hutson was a director and the chairperson of G8 Education and resigned on 15 October 2015, 10 days after the Takeovers Panel made a declaration of unacceptable circumstances in relation to the takeover bids.
Hutson has been charged with:
- one count of dishonestly failing to exercise her powers and discharge her duties as a director under section 184(1) of the Corporations Act (maximum sentence of imprisonment of five years);
- two counts of dishonest use of her position as a director under section 184(2) of the Corporations Act (maximum sentence of imprisonment of five years);
- 10 counts of authorising the giving of false or misleading information to an operator of a financial market (maximum sentence of imprisonment of 5 years);
- two counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice under section 43 of the Crimes Act (maximum sentence of imprisonment of twenty five years); and
- 15 counts of giving false or misleading information under section 64 of the ASIC Act (maximum sentence of imprisonment of two years).
This is not the first time Hutson and the corporate regulator have locked horns.
In June 2013, ASIC took Hutson’s Wellington Capital, the responsible entity of the Premium Income Fund (previously run by failed Gold Coast group MFS Limited) to the Federal Court over its handling of the PIF fund.
A month earlier, the Full Court of the Federal Court found Wellington improperly distributed shares.
Hutson appealed the decision to the High Court of Australia and in November 2014, the Court rejected the appeal and found Wellington Capital did not have the powers to make an in specie transfer of shares and contravened its own constitution.
In September 2012, Wellington Capital sold 41% of its assets in the PIF fund to another company, Asset Resolution Ltd, without unitholders’ approval.
The corporate regulator, Australian Securities and Investment Commission, took Wellington to the Federal Court in October 2012 and lost the case. ASIC appealed the decision to the Full Federal Court, which overturned the original decision.
Australian Property Journal
