The criminal charges laid against former HIH Director Rodney Adler last week could be the first in a series, according to ASIC Chairman David Knott.

Speaking on ABC’s Inside Business program, Mr Knott said further criminal charges may arise once the findings of the HIH Royal Commission are released in February. “I think that it is quite probable that further charges will follow,” he said. “We will have to wait and see what the royal commission says when it reports in February. But of course we have been conducting our own investigation as well, so charges or proceedings of a civil penalty type could come out of either stream.”

Mr Knott anticipates ASIC’s own investigations will be finalised “in the first three or four months of next year”.