Landau pleads guilty to theft, forgery

Former dealmaker Peter Landau has pleaded guilty to theft, forgery and providing false documents to the corporate watchdog during his time at the helm of two failed exploration companies.

Mr Landau faced Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court, pleading guilty to nine charges that arose out of a lengthy probe by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The investigation concerned activities allegedly undertaken at Continental Coal and Citation Resources back in 2014, two years before the companies collapsed.

ASIC alleged Mr Landau stole $2.2 million worth of applicant funds from a bank account of Citation Resources without the knowledge of the company’s fellow directors, using the funds to repay investors of Continental Coal.

He allegedly forged a bank statement for Citation, purporting to have $675,000 more than it did in the bank, and provided false documents to the watchdog claiming Continental Coal had received $2.6m from investors.

Further, ASIC claimed Mr Landau gave the market false or misleading information by failing to disclose that Continental Coal’s only income-generating asset had gone into administration and assets had been sold when they had not.

Mr Landau also pleaded guilty to failing to hold applicant money on trust after he transferred $1 million from a Continental Coal trust into various bank accounts.

He will be sentenced on January 31 and February 7, 2023.

The investigation was underpinned by a report from Continental Coal’s liquidator Robert Kirman.

Citation Resources entered voluntary administration in September 2016, launching legal action against Mr Landau four months after his resignation in a bid to recover funds.

A fellow director and a company secretary of Continental Coal were also pursued following the ASIC investigation.