The New Zealand Financial Markets Authority announced that the High Court has ordered former CBL Group Chief Financial Officer Carden Mulholland to pay a pecuniary penalty of NZD 641,250 and agreed costs of NZD 606,216.53 for breaches of the continuous disclosure requirements in the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013. The order follows findings that he was personally liable as an accessory to CBL Corporation Limited’s continuous disclosure contraventions. The contraventions occurred over a five-month period leading up to CBL Corporation Limited’s collapse in February 2018 and were tested at a nearly six-week trial in the Auckland High Court. The Court found Mr Mulholland had the requisite knowledge and participation in three disclosure failures relating to approximately $35 million of aged receivables affecting regulatory solvency, the need to strengthen reserves by approximately $100 million, and a Central Bank of Ireland direction requiring CBL Insurance Europe dac to hold additional cash reserves of EUR 31.5 million, with delays between when issues were known internally and when they were disclosed to the market. After the liability findings, the FMA and Mr Mulholland agreed a recommended penalty level that the Court approved, with the Judge highlighting the prolonged period in which investors traded without timely access to material information. Related FMA proceedings against CBL Corporation Limited, its managing director and four former independent non-executive directors were settled in court in 2023 and 2024, resulting in admissions of seven contraventions each and total pecuniary penalties of $11.28 million. A separate FMA proceeding alleging Financial Markets Conduct Act breaches relating to CBL Corporation Limited’s 2015 initial public offering is scheduled for a six-week trial commencing 13 April 2026.

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