ASIC, Greaves reach agreement

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has reached an agreement with John Greaves, who was chairman of failed telco One.Tel.

Jeffrey Lucy, chairman at ASIC, said the Commission had reached an agreement with Greaves in the Supreme Court proceedings against him. Greaves was a former non-executive director and chairman of One.Tel.

According to a statement issued by ASIC, under the agreement Greaves has admitted to contraventions of the Corporations Law between January 2001 and 30 March 2001 in relation to the discharge of his duties as a non-executive director and the chairman of One.Tel.

"Previously, Mr Greaves had sought to strike out the claim brought against him by ASIC on the basis that the duties of a chairman were not, at law, as extensive as ASIC wished to establish," the statement said. "In February 2003, Justice Austin ruled against Mr Greaves on this point."

As part of the agreement, at hearings last week ASIC and Greaves made joint submissions to Justice White.

"As a result of the hearings and submissions, Mr Justice White made orders that Mr Greaves: be prohibited from managing a corporation for a period [of] four years; be found liable for the compensation of $20 million to One.Tel; and be ordered to pay ASIC's costs of $350,000," according to ASIC's statement.

"As part of the terms of agreement, Mr Greaves admits that during the period January 2001 to 30 March 2001, he failed to take the steps that he should have in order to ensure that he and the board of One.Tel properly monitored management and were aware of the true financial position of the company," it continued.

ASIC said that it had never been part of its case that Greaves acted dishonestly in relation to the performance of his roles at One.Tel.

Greaves was one of four defendants in proceedings ASIC instigated following One.Tel's collapse in 2001. The Commission's proceedings against Jodee Rich and Mark Silbermann are continuing, according to the statement.