SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A former chief executive who oversaw the multi-million dollar collapse of one of Australia's largest insurance companies was released from prison yesterday.

Ray Williams, 71, pleaded guilty in 2004 to three counts stemming from his management of HIH Insurance Ltd., including misleading shareholders about the financial position of the company, which collapsed in March 2001 with debts of 5.3 billion Australian dollars ($4.73 billion).

He was released from prison early Monday after serving two years and nine months of his four-and-a-half year term.

Wearing beige trousers and a blue shirt, Mr. Williams paused briefly to speak to waiting reporters.

"The last thing that I wanted...was for HIH to fail. For people who have been hurt and for people who have suffered a financial loss, I am very sorry," Mr. Williams said before being driven away in a sedan.

HIH was Australia's second largest insurer when it collapsed, leaving thousands of policy holders with unpaid claims and sparking the failure of a number of home-building companies insured by HIH.

In 2003, a judicial inquiry into the HIH collapse documented corporate excesses including Mr. Williams letting his secretary stay at company expense in a plush Sydney hotel during the week and fly home each weekend to a tropical resort area of Queensland state, 560 miles north of Sydney.

One year HIH also spent more than a million dollars on lavish Christmas parties, and the day before its collapse the company paid out 10 million Australian dollars ($8.9 million) in bonuses to senior executives.

The HIH failure was Australia's biggest-ever corporate collapse and put the spotlight on corporate governance practices in Australia well before the Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. scandals in the United States.

Another former HIH director, Rodney Adler, who was also sentenced to four-and-a-half years for his role in the collapse, was released from prison in October.