Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated ActsFault - based offence
(1) A person commits an offence if:
(a) a document:
(i) is required under or for the purposes of this Act; or
(ii) is lodged with or submitted to ASIC under or for the purposes of this Act; and
(b) the person:
(i) makes, or authorises the making of, a statement in the document; or
(ii) omits, or authorises the omission of, a matter or thing from the document; and
(c) the person knows that the document is materially false or misleading because of the statement or omission.
Criminal penalty: 5 years imprisonment.
Note: For when a document is materially false or misleading , see subsection (5).
Strict liability offence--failure to take reasonable steps
(2) A person commits an offence of strict liability if:
(a) a document:
(i) is required under or for the purposes of this Act; or
(ii) is lodged with or submitted to ASIC under or for the purposes of this Act; and
(b) the person:
(i) makes, or authorises the making of, a statement in the document; or
(ii) omits, or authorises the omission of, a matter or thing from the document; and
(c) the document is materially false or misleading because of the statement or omission; and
(d) the person did not take all reasonable steps to ensure that the document was not materially false or misleading because of the statement or omission.
Criminal penalty: 20 penalty units.
Note 1: For when a document is materially false or misleading , see subsection (5).
Note 2: For strict liability, see section 6.1 of the Criminal Code .
Civil penalty--knowledge or recklessness
(3) A person contravenes this subsection if:
(a) a document:
(i) is required under or for the purposes of this Act; or
(ii) is lodged with or submitted to ASIC under or for the purposes of this Act; and
(b) the person:
(i) makes, or authorises the making of, a statement in the document; or
(ii) omits, or authorises the omission of, a matter or thing from the document; and
(c) the person knows that, or is reckless as to whether, the document is materially false or misleading because of the statement or omission.
Civil penalty: 5,000 penalty units.
Note: For when a document is materially false or misleading , see subsection (5).
Civil penalty--failure to take reasonable steps
(4) A person contravenes this subsection if:
(a) a document:
(i) is required under or for the purposes of this Act; or
(ii) is lodged with or submitted to ASIC under or for the purposes of this Act; and
(b) the person:
(i) makes, or authorises the making of, a statement in a document; or
(ii) omits, or authorises the omission of, a matter or thing from a document; and
(c) the document is materially false or misleading because of the statement or omission; and
(d) the person did not take all reasonable steps to ensure that the document was not materially false or misleading because of the statement or omission.
Civil penalty: 5,000 penalty units.
Note: For when a document is materially false or misleading , see subsection (5).
When a document is materially false or misleading
(5) For the purposes of this section, a document is materially false or misleading if:
(a) the document includes a statement that:
(i) is false in a material particular or materially misleading; or
(ii) is based on information that is false in a material particular or materially misleading, or has omitted from it a matter or thing the omission of which renders the document materially misleading; or
(b) a matter or thing is omitted from the document and, without the matter or thing, the document is false in a material particular or materially misleading.
Authorisations
(6) For the purposes of this section, a person who votes in favour of a resolution approving, or who otherwise approves, a document is taken to have authorised:
(a) the making of any statement in the document; and
(b) the omission of any matter or thing from the document.