April 2005, Ray Williams was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months' jail with a non-parole period of 2 years and 9 months, after pleading guilty to misleading shareholders about the financial position of HIH. Williams was also banned from leading an Australian corporation for ten years. On 14 January 2008, Williams was released from jail after serving just under three years. Sydney businessman Brad Cooper was sentenced in the Supreme Court on 23 June 2006, after a jury found him guilty on 13 charges relating to bribes he paid a senior HIH official to push through false claims in the months before the insurer's collapse. He was sentenced to 8 years' jail with a non-parole period of 5 years. Cooper reportedly admitted to having a cocaine addiction during his high-flying days when he worked as a motivational speaker and as a salesman. At the time he entered jail in October 2005, Australian media stated he reported to prison officials that he had further addictions to painkillers, dex-amphetamines, and was on a valium addiction program. Prior to his arrest, he had begun a relationship with Sascha Ricci Griffin, and she continued their relationship with visits to him in court and jail, until his release in late 2010. Cooper filed an appeal from jail against the severity of his sentence, but the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the application in March 2009. On 21 November 2008, it was reported that a charge had been dropped against former HIH chairman Geoffrey Cohen a week before it was due to be heard in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court. The decision by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions not to proceed followed a similar decision in February 2008 relating to a more serious charge. Both were laid in 2005. Both abandoned charges related to Cohen's address to shareholders at the HIH annual general meeting in December 2000. In the second charge, ASIC alleged Cohen did not take reasonable steps to ensure that the information he gave to the shareholders at annual meeting was not misleading about a joint venture between Allianz Australia Ltd (Allianz) and HIH. The first charge alleged Cohen knowingly misled investors. References Further reading External links HIH Insurance Creditor Information Website Financial services companies established in 1988 Financial services companies disestablished in 2001 Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Defunct financial services companies of Australia Insurance companies of