Peter Huljich handed seven-year ban over Pushpay share sale

Huljich is now prohibited – for seven years from the date of his conviction (November 3, 2023), without leave of the High Court – from:

Being a director or promoter of, or being in any way (directly or indirectly) concerned, or taking part, in the management of a financial markets participant (as defined in the Financial Markets Authority Act 2011), or a company that has resolved to become a financial markets participant.

FMA head of enforcement Margot Gatland said everyone trading in New Zealand’s markets was entitled to do so on the same footing, without others acting while holding information the market doesn’t have.

“Mr Huljich had such information and encouraged others to trade when that information was not generally available to the market trading on it,” Gatland said.

“The seven-year ban that now concludes the FMA’s proceedings over the Pushpay share sale is a significant consequence.”

The FMA also accepted an enforceable undertaking from Sarah Huljich (nee Elder).

Huljich was Pushpay’s head of investor relations at the time and admitted she ought to have known the information was material and that she helped facilitate – and thereby encouraged – trading in Pushpay shares while she held that information.

She has paid $50,000 in lieu of a pecuniary penalty, and the civil proceedings against her have been discontinued.

Gatland said that with Huljich’s enforceable undertaking, the matter was at an end.

The proceedings arose after former Pushpay co-founder and director Eliot Crowther told individuals at Pushpay in June 2018 that he was considering resigning and selling his shareholding, information the FMA considered material and not generally available to the market.

Pushpay was not the subject of the FMA’s investigation and was not a party to the proceedings, and Crowther’s own share sale was lawful.

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.

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