Last updated 16:56, June 6 2018
NATASHA MARTIN/STUFF
The family of Jean Hubbard, pictured in 2010 with her late husband Allan Hubbard, has requested privacy following her death.
The family of Jean Hubbard, pictured in 2010 with her late husband Allan Hubbard, has requested privacy following her death.
The woman who stood by Timaru financier Allan Hubbard as his empire crumbled has died.
A family member of Jean Hubbard confirmed her death on Wednesday. No further details were available and the family has requested privacy.
Margaret Jane Hubbard, who was known as Jean and in her late 80s, was the wife of the late Allan Hubbard, the man behind South Canterbury Finance which collapsed on August 31, 2010, triggering a $1.6 billion taxpayer bailout.
Hundreds of people attended a rally in support of Allan Hubbard in 2010. The crowd marched along Timaru's Stafford St to the former South Canterbury Finance building where the late Jean Hubbard came out to thank the crowd.
Allan Hubbard died in September 2011, after the car he was a passenger in collided head-on with a four-wheel-drive utility towing a trailer, about eight kilometres north of Oamaru.
He was flown to Dunedin Hospital, but died on the way.
Allan and Jean Hubbard talk to Mark Sainsbury in 2010.
Jean, who was driving at the time of the crash, suffered fracture injuries.
At the time of the crash the Hubbards were subject to statutory management.
One of the Hubbards' most vocal supporters, John Funnell, who administered the Help Allan Hubbard support group, was pivotal in supporting the couple after they were placed in statutory management.
Allan helped set up Funnell's rescue helicopter business in the North Island more than 30 years ago.
Funnell was saddened to learn of Jean's death.
"Jean was always there in the background.
"The thing that stuck out about Jean, and Allan, was the way they went out of their way to help others.
"When they were in receivership and their accounts were frozen, a group of us had raised some funds to help them out but they insisted we use the funds to help those investors out who were owed money."
Funnell described the couple as a "package".
"Everything I heard about them was good.
"It was their old school business ethics that helped so many people."
In June 2011, following a year-long investigation, Allan was charged with 50 counts of fraud by the Serious Fraud Office. The charges were dropped after his death and Jean was subsequently released from statutory management.
Depositors were covered by the $1.6 billion taxpayer bailout but those holding $120 million worth of preferential shares were not.
In 2017, it was announced former investors would share more than $9.4 million in proceeds from Allan's estate.
The decision followed a proposal made by the administrators of Allan's estate to distribute its assets, valued at $9.414 million, to creditors on a pro rata basis.
The administrators included Jean who had been ordered by the High Court in May 2016 to start working on a proposal, in respect of claims made against the estate, under part 5 of the Insolvency Act 2006.
The statutory management period for Aorangi Securities ended in 2014, with about 400 investors repaid $101.2 million.
That was followed by the statutory management period ending for Hubbard Management Funds in 2015. About 300 investors were repaid $36.5 million.