ASIC has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against Wiluna Mining Corporation, its former chair Milan Jerkovic and former chief commercial officer James Malone.
ASIC alleges that Wiluna breached continuous disclosure obligations and Mr Jerkovic, amongst other matters, his director duties, by failing to accurately announce the amount raised by Wiluna via a rights issue to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). ÷ÈÓ°Ö±²¥ also alleges Mr Malone failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that statements to the ASX were not false and misleading.
ASIC Chair Joe Longo said, ‘Wiluna, its director and chief commercial officer allegedly engaged in serious contraventions of the Corporations Act and made misleading claims to investors.
‘The lack of transparency and subsequent corporate failure have the potential to drive a loss of confidence in our capital markets. Market integrity concerns like this may lead to diminished investor participation in capital raisings in all or sections of Australian equity markets, which ultimately impacts the Australian economy and international standing.
‘÷ÈÓ°Ö±²¥â€™s action highlights the importance of the need for strong corporate governance within ASX listed entities. ÷ÈÓ°Ö±²¥ will continue to take action to hold directors and officers of publicly listed companies accountable for their misconduct.’
On 17 June 2022, Wiluna announced to the market that it had raised $57.3 million as part of a capital raising, but of those funds $7 million was never received. The company went into administration just over a month later on 21 July 2022. ÷ÈÓ°Ö±²¥ is seeking declarations of contravention Wiluna, and declarations of contravention and pecuniary penalties against Mr Jerkovic and Mr Malone.
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Background
Wiluna Mining Corporation Limited (formerly Blackham Resources Limited) is a gold mining company that operated the Wiluna gold mine in the northern goldfields of Western Australia.
On 21 July 2022, the board of Wiluna went into voluntary administration and appointed Michael Ryan, Kate Warwick, Ian Francis and Daniel Woodhouse of FTI Consulting as the administrators of Wiluna.
Between the 17 June announcement and the appointment of the administrators, the market was never informed that $7 million of the capital raising was never received by Wiluna.
Wiluna was de-listed by the ASX on 5 April 2024 after failing to lodge the half year report for the six-month period ended 31 December 2022.