新西兰英语 601 Bridgecorp directors guilty

 　　Bridgecorp was a finance company started in 1993. It went bankrupt in 2007, owing $490m to 14,500 investors¹. Many investors lost all their savings². They may get back 10c for every dollar they invested. The company offered high interest rates and seemed like a very successful company. The directors drove expensive cars and lived in expensive houses.

　　However, by 2007, the directors knew the company was in trouble but they did not tell investors. They still encouraged people to put their savings into the company. They did not tell people that the company had missed interest payments. They told lies.

　　After a four month trial, two directors were found guilty on 18 charges today. These two, Mr Petricevic and Mr Roest are now in prison while they wait to be sentenced. Another director was found guilty on six charges. He is on bail³ until next month.

　　Mr Petricevic was a director of two other finance companies in the past. Both of them went bankrupt losing $231m of investors’ money. He, however, has made millions of dollars. Most of this money and assets are owned by family trusts.

　　Vocabulary – make sure you know these words:

　　Finance vocabulary

　　investors

　　bankrupt

　　interest rates

　　interest payments

　　assets

　　family trusts

　　Court vocabulary

　　charges

　　to be sentenced

　　on bail

　　Question

　　Why do people put their money into family trusts?

1 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

2 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

3 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。