Permanent management ban

Christchurch: A man who defrauded more than 900 South Island investors of more than $8 million in a Ponzi scheme has become the first person to be permanently banned from being involved in managing a company.

The High Court at Christchurch has ordered the ban for Lance Jared Ryan, while his codefendant in an earlier case, David Blake, has been banned from management for 12 years.

Ryan was sentenced last year to seven years and six months in prison over the Ponzi scheme, operating under the name Arena Capital Ltd.

He and Blake, both undischarged bankrupts, also set up the Hygiene Foundation, which went into liquidation in 2013 owing more than $700,000 to creditors. — RNZ