Former Bill Express executive charged over cooking-the-books claims

One of the worst collapses of the GFC will be revisited in the courtroom after the Australian Securities and Investment Commission brought 10 charges against former Bill Express chief financial officer, Peter Couper.

In one charge, ASIC alleges Couper falsified the accounts of Bill Express by ordering staff to record a $5.4 million sale of stock when no such sale occurred.

Bill Express and its listed parent company, OnQ Group, collapsed in July 2008 with debts of $250 million. The effects of the collapse were widespread. Bill Express provided payment solutions for hundreds of firms, and also had payment terminals in 3,500 newsagents around the country, with 14,000 terminals in total.

But the company was later exposed as having a complex labyrinth of related companies and subsidiaries that made its financial results look far better than they actually were.

ASIC has charged Couper with five counts of falsifying the books of Bill Express, one count of misleading an auditor and one count of false accounting under Victorian laws.

ASIC claims Couper falsified the books of Bill Express on two occasions by instructing staff to “post accounting entries which each recorded a sale of $5.4 million of stock when there had been no such sales.”

The corporate watchdog also claims Couper instructed staff to post accounting entries which recorded the purchase of $1.875 million of stock when there had been no such purchase.

Couper also faces three charges relating to a previous Bill Express prosecution.

In July, former Macquarie Group adviser Newton Chan was sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to eight counts of manipulating the price of Bill Express shares and one count of providing false or misleading information to ASIC. Chan is currently serving four months of the sentence.

Couper has been charged with three counts of providing false or misleading information to ASIC in relation to his communications with Chan.

Another former Bill Express executive, Enzo Di Donato, was charged in March with four counts of providing false or misleading information to ASIC during an examination.