04-109 Church company employee jailed on ASIC charges
Friday 16 April 2004
Mr Cameron John Watt was today sentenced to four years imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years and six months, in the Sydney District Court, on 11 charges laid by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Mr Watt was convicted on 11 counts of dishonestly using his position as an employee of the company with the intention of directly or indirectly gaining an advantage for himself.
Mr Watt had been found guilty on four charges by a jury in December 2003. Mr Watt pleaded guilty to a further seven charges during the course of the trial.
Mr Watt was Assistant General Manager of Baptist Investments & Finance Limited, which managed an investment fund for the Baptist Union in NSW and the ACT.
An ASIC investigation found that during the period May 2001 to October 2001, Mr Watt dishonestly applied $4 million belonging to his employer, Baptist Investments & Finance Limited, for investment in an illegal investment scheme in which he expected to receive a secret commission of more than $1.5 million.
ASIC also found that Mr Watt used almost $100,000 of Baptist Investment & Finance Limited funds for personal expenses, including the purchase of a car, shares and the deposit on a house.
During ASIC’s enquiries into an illegal offshore investment scheme operated by Anglo Pacifique, a company incorporated in St Vincent and the Grenadines, ASIC detected the transfer of $4 million from Baptists Finance & Investments Limited to Anglo Pacifique Limited, and uncovered the fraud involving Mr Watt.
‘ASIC will not hesitate to bring company officers, who act dishonestly and misuse their positions for their own benefit, before the Courts’, said Mr Allen Turton, Deputy Executive Director Enforcement.
The matter was prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
ASIC Website: Printed 03/22/2010
