Bernard Whimp gets his name in lights … sort of

One Comment »

• Peter Aranyi says:

  7 May 2011 at 7:41 am

  Apropos this comment from my post: “I bet he is blaming his ‘competitors’ for this turn of events, and ‘biased, ‘corrupt’ authorities for their envy-driven efforts to denigrate him — a ‘leader in the industry’. Oh, yeah.”

  Look at this in the paper this morning…

  Mr Whimp, who worked in the office, claimed that keeping him from the office was unjustified, because there were 40 companies based there, and he returned late in the evening to find it open, retrieving property and documents that belonged to him, and informing the Official Assignee of this.
  Despite insisting that it did not occur to him that what he was doing was illegal, he was convicted for unlawfully removing records from his office, failing to comply with a notice from a liquidator and burglary.
  Ironically, he was banned from being a director, despite his going to great lengths to avoid being a director of many of the companies he has been accused of running.
  Given the maximum five years, the ban lasts until next April.
  In his view, he has been the victim of a campaign against him by the Official Assignee and the Securities Commission.
  Those who know him describe him as being at the same time flashy – during his time at General Mortgage he drove a Porsche until it was repossessed – and secretive – often refusing to meet in person or be photographed.
  A man with close experience with the General Mortgage situation said the name Mr Whimp did not seem apt, as he constantly took matters to court and never accepted he was wrong.
  “He must have balls – you would need them to take that kind of approach, but I’m not sure if he has a conscience.”

  And here’s a picture:
  

  From the same story at http://www.stuff.co.nz:

  On his public infamy? He does not care.
  “No-one in this country has any balls any more. Don’t associate me with any of that.”
  He has been attacked by commentators, regulators and virtually every company whose shareholders he has targeted.
  He has been called a “vulture” (the New Zealand Shareholders Association), his actions dubbed “reprehensible” (Skycity chief executive Nigel Morrison) and prompted calls for immediate law changes to stamp out the practice (Vector chairman Michael Stiassny).