Hodgson has been charged with 18 counts of failing to act honestly as an officer of Harris Scarfe Limited; six counts of acting dishonestly as an employee of Harris Scarfe Limited; and eight counts relating to the dissemination of false information to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).
Hodgson was the CFO at Harris Scarfe Holdings, to which administrators, receiver and managers have been appointed. He was also a director of Harris Scarfe Limited, which also had administrators, receivers and managers appointed.
In April ZDNet Australia reported that, following the appointment of voluntary administrators, ASIC had launched an investigation. At the time ASIC chairman David Knott commented that it was conducting a formal investigation into possible accounting, disclosure, and other offences.
A spokesperson from ASIC said it could not comment any further at present. ASIC is continuing its investigations into Harris Scarfe.
Harris Scarfe was also in the news late last year, when it bailed out online retailer dstore for an undisclosed figure. At the time the takeover was described as "ideally positions Harris Scarfe at the centre of the emerging convergence between online and offline retail environments as the industry rapidly moves towards full integrated multi-channel distribution".
