The collapse of the engineering services group Hastie had its roots in an expensive and poorly executed acquisition spree and a culture of secrecy that buried bad news and falsified the company's accounts over a number of years.
The corporate regulator is investigating the accounting irregularities that took place from 2009 and continued well after the company issued a prospectus to shareholders to raise $160 million last year. The company's auditors and board signed off on that prospectus, which contained false and misleading information.
The victims of the collapse are the 2500 staff who have lost their jobs, seven banks which stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in loans and bank guarantees, and thousands of shareholders who have watched their shares tank over the past few years. At least half of the $243 million worth of bank guarantees were expected to be called overnight.
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