Peter Landau: Former high-flyer jailed for at least 44 months over Continental Coal, Citation Resources crimes

Former top Perth lawyer and globe-trotting promoter Peter Landau has been sentenced to potentially more than five years in jail for a $2.2 million spree of thefts and cover-ups. Imposing a minimum term of 44 months, Justice Joseph McGrath said Landau’s theft of $2.24m from listed Citation Resources involved extended breaches of trust and went against the fundamental responsibilities of company directors. The WA Supreme Court judge said offences of the kinds Landau had admitted committing between 2015 and 2016 had the potential to undermine confidence in Australia’s financial markets. “You stole from a company of which you were a director,” Justice McGrath said. “Anyone considering such acts must know the consequences.” The judge made the comments ahead of imposing a head sentence of five years and two months on five WA stealing offences and one count of forging a bank statement. After serving a non-parole period of three years and two months for the State crimes, he will begin serving six months minimum imprisonment for three Federal offences, headlined by providing false or misleading material to the Australian Securities Exchange and to Federal investigators. Landau’s sentence packaged also covers his guilty plea to prematurely distributing $1m in new capital raised by struggling South African miner Continental Coal. The so-called rescue practice operator was trying to kept Continental afloat with money stolen from Citation, the Supreme Court was told. Landau’s case was sent for sentencing after he pleaded guilty in Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court in August last year to nine offences related to his Citation-Continental crime spree. The admissions came after striking a deal with Federal officials who had hit with him 82 charges in 2020. The charges arose from a more than four-year investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission into messy dealings between two companies closely linked to Landau. The court was told last week that about 70 per cent of the $2.24m that Landau stole from Citation was used to pay Continental creditors, around 20 per cent went into Continental and 10 per cent went to fund Landau’s family and business expenses. Justice McGrath poured cold water on Landau’s mitigation pleas that pointed to the stress of events related to Continental’s difficulties. He said the benefits of being in the corporate world were great but so were the burdens. “It is at the time of financial difficulty that directors must adhere to the proper performance of their duties,” Justice McGrath said. “This you failed to do.” Justice McGrath imposed the minimum 44 month sentence package after giving Landau the maximum 25 per cent State discount for pleading guilty before the matter was sent up to the Supreme Court, which would have required a prolonged and complex trial. In assessing contrition, the judge also acknowledged that Landau arranged for an unidentified associate to put $2m into Citation in January 2017 after it collapsed.