Section 287A introduced by the Corporate Laws Amendment Act (CLA) last year makes it an offence to be a part of misleading financial information...
"If any financial report of a company is false or misleading in a material respect, any person who is a party to the preparation, approval, publication, issue or supply of that report and who knows or ought reasonably to suspect that it is false or misleading is guilty of an offence"
Important to note is the inclusion of any financial report - not just financial statements, and any party. This can affect even the publisher of that information, if he or she ought reasonably to suspect that the information was false or misleading!
"There is a potential exposure under this section for parties who recommend schemes or wording which are adopted in any financial report regardless of whether they are officers of the company - this would, presumably, include external financial and legal or tax advisors." according to Deneys Reitz
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