The sentencing of former FAI CEO Rodney Adler and his HIH counterpart Ray Williams last Thursday closed the first chapter in the long-running saga of the HIH collapse. Mr Adler, the one-time ICA President and Sydney corporate high-flyer, was ordered to pay a fine of $900,000 and compensation of $5.3 million to HIH creditors.

He was also banned from acting as a company director for the next 20 years. Despite being found to have breached the Corporations Act on 185 occasions, Mr Adler had given NSW Supreme Court Justice Kim Santow “no expression… to indicate that he would not offend again”.

ASIC sued Mr Adler, Mr Williams and former HIH CFO Dominic Fodera over a $10 million payment made by HIH to a trust run by Mr Adler. The money was used by Mr Adler to buy $4 million in HIH shares, giving the impression that he was using his own money. He also bought shares in unlisted technology companies from his company Adler Corporation.

Mr Williams was banned from being a director for 10 years; fined $250,000 and ordered to pay $2.6 million compensation. Justice Santow said Mr Williams gave false and misleading information to the HIH board, behaviour that “went well behind an error of judgment”.

Mr Fodera was fined $5000.

Mr Adler is considering appealing, and continued after the sentences were imposed to insist he acted honestly at all times, “and I believe in the best interests of the companies with which I am associated”.

But wait, there’s more: Mr Adler will front up to the HIH Royal Commission in Sydney on Thursday for what is expected to be a torrid time in the witness box.

And then he will turn witness for the prosecution on June 11 when he appears for ASIC in its case against former OAMPS CEO Robert Porter. It is alleged that Mr Porter used OAMPS funds in 1998 to buy shares in itself. Mr Adler controlled 17% of the company through FAI.