JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The investigation of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (Asic) into the affairs of Western Australia-based, but former South Africa-focused developer Continental Coal, is continuing, with the corporate watchdog announcing that it has secured further asset-freezing orders.
Asic reported on Friday that it had obtained asset preservation orders against Jane Flegg, a Western Australia-based company secretary of the ASX-listed company. Continental Coal director Peter Landau had also previously consented to interim asset preservation orders over his personal assets, and the assets of companies of which he is sole director.
Flegg and Landau consented to the orders on the basis that their rights were reserved. Flegg agreed to the order without admission of liability or wrongdoing, Asic said.
The Federal Court of Australia in May ordered the winding up of Continental Coal and appointed liquidators, following an application by Asic.
The corporate watchdog alleges that Continental Coal is not being properly managed and that it has been involved in multiple contraventions of the corporations legislation, including a failure to comply with its continuous disclosure obligations, a failure to lodge its audited accounts and convene its annual general meeting, a failure to appoint a second Australian resident director and a failure to hold application monies received under a rights issue on trust, and insolvency.
Continental Coal developed mines in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province before it ran into financial trouble.