The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has brought criminal charges against the founder of property group, Westpoint.

Mr Norman Carey and Mr Graeme Rundle, of Perth, Western Australia, have been charged in the Magistrates Court in Perth on two criminal charges each, brought by Australia's corporate watchdog.

ASIC alleges in January 2006, Mr Carey and Mr Rundle breached their duties as officers of Westpoint Management Limited and Westpoint Corporation Pty Ltd.

These breaches occurred when they executed deeds extending the time for Westpoint Corporation Pty Ltd to exercise an option to purchase the Warnbro Fair Shopping Centre and adjoining land (WFSC). The breaches also involved transfer of the option to purchase WFSC to Bowesco Pty Ltd; a Carey family trustee company.

If convicted, each alleged offence carries a maximum penalty of five years’ jail.

At the time of the alleged offences, Mr Carey and Mr Rundle were officers of Westpoint Management Limited, the responsible entity for the managed investment scheme, Warnbro Fair Syndicate, which owned the WFSC. They were also officers of Westpoint Corporation Pty Ltd.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting the matter, which returns to court on 15 July 2011.
Westpoint collapsed in 2006, owing 4,000 investors about $300 million.

Mr Carey and Mr Rundle were charged in April 2011. However, Court orders suppressed publication of the charges while Mr Rundle faced trial in Sydney for separate offences.

On Friday 24 June 2011, a jury found Mr Rundle guilty on two charges of making false or misleading statements to a financial institution in support of a $71 million credit facility application to fund a Westpoint building of the Scots Church project in York Street, Sydney.

Mr Rundle will be sentenced in respect of the Scots Church project in the District Court of NSW on 12 August 2011.