Jan 15 2008
Williams did his time
Ray Williams was freed yesterday after serving his sentence after pleading guilty for misleading statements he made about the financial position of HIH (more on this later). For this crime he was sentenced to four years, six months in jail with a non-parole period of two years, nine months. He completed his sentence and was even man enough to admit fault and apologies to the
investors who lost money in his company collapse.
I am not an advocate of light sentences or the heavy/death sentences by any means. I am an advocate of following the umpire’s decision and when every Tom, Dick and Harry is having a whinge about, early release this and light sentence that, it is not the criminal at which you should be directing your frustrations, it is the Judge. If you are that upset about the decision write a letter to your local member and make your disapproval known. I would be interested to know how many complaints in writing were received about Mr Williams sentence. Not to many I would suspect, it seems easier to stand on a soapbox and have a verbal whinge after the fact.
Back to HIH, It was commonly known at the time before the collapse that HIH was in a large amount of debt (any one who read the annual report would have known this). As are a number of Australian companies trading on the stock exchange at any one time. It was just a small discrepancy as to the extent of this debt that was lied about. Still a lie and wrong but if you are invested in a company, you should be reasonably aware of the responsibility for debt that your shares carry. For example if you owned one share in Company X and your one share in the company carried a shareholder equity of $7.80 per share but carried a long term debt of $7.70 per share it does not take a rocket scientist to work out that if things go bad (you have a bad trading year), you are going to struggle to cover this debt. And if you are not aware of this or do not accept this, than I am sorry, you have absolutely no business being invested in companies or the stock market or having a cry when things go bad.
Well said Warren!
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Thanks mate.
SJ
But people rely on the advise of stock brokers for there investment. It is not their fault the directors lied to them. And who is able to read a companies annual report, they are huge. You have to rely on advise from the people that are running the company.
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Incorrect, You are responsible for where you put your money! If the broker gives bad advise what jail time does he get? none. It is the investers responsibility!!!
SJ
True it is the investors responsibility where they put their money, but it is also the responsibility of a company director to correctly state the position of their company both in the financial reports and AGM.
I think if enough people stand on their soapbox and express their disapproval of a situation then sometimes….sometimes something is done about it…..hence we are saying ‘sorry’ to the stolen generation. Isn’t this website a soapbox??
Ray Williams should not be allowed to be a director in company. Same goes for Mr Onetel, Burns Philp, Bond, Skase, Enron…..and the list goes on as history continues to repeat itself.
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It is the director’s responsibility to report the correct position of their company, I agree. He was punished for this. My point is that even with his lies the company still clearly appeared to be in trouble and the opinion of the chairman is not necessarily the one you should value above all else.
Skase will find it difficult to direct anymore companies……. last I checked anyways
SJ
Well Rob B ( for Boring), if nobody (other than SJ) will reply to you, I will. You are correct. You seem to have a fair understanding of the workings of the financial system in this country.
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I am sorry iamasmartman.com I believe you are incorrect in your support of Rob B against me on this matter. It is a subject I have a good deal of knowledge of and submit you are a boy of limited knowledge on world politics, capitalism and security investing. Please limit yourself to your normal verbal slaps against others or you will find yourself in a literate hurricane I fear you will not survive.
SJ