While the legislature is slow to act over the HIH collapse, the corporate regulator has also been under scrutiny for the seemingly slow pace at which prosecutions are being conducted.

Today former HIH Deputy Chairman Charles Abbott will appear in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court to answer a charge of using his position as a HIH director for personal gain. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years’ jail.  

Mr Abbott’s summons relates to a $181,445.39 payment made by HIH management into his private company, Ashkirk Pty Ltd, on March 14, 2001 – the evening before the insurer collapsed. The money was paid in response to an invoice he had prepared for work previously carried out for the HIH board. The money was repaid in January last year after a request from HIH liquidator Tony McGrath.

Mr Abbott originally told the HIH Royal Commission he had asked for the money at 4pm on March 14, and had only learned the company was going into liquidation at 6pm. But late in the royal commission’s hearings Mr McGrath said Mr Abbott was at a meeting earlier in the day where he stated his intention to put the insurer into liquidation. 

A former Blake Dawson Waldron partner, Mr Abbott secured a deal with the law firm in 1990 to receive a 10% cut of any work he directed to the firm, plus a $25,000 retainer. When he joined the HIH Board in 1995 he told the insurer about the retainer, but not the commission deal.