The Premier’s former campaign manager Andre Curtis this morning pleaded guilty to carrying on an investment business without a licence.

However, he denied a charge that he provided misleading statements.

The Crown accepted the pleas, and asked that the second charge not be proceeded with.

Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves bailed Curtis and ordered pre-sentence reports.

The charges relate to the defendant’s company, Harvest Investment Holdings.

The Royal Gazette obtained copies of printouts last year showing how the company claimed on its website to be licensed to conduct investment business.

In fact, the firm did not have a licence.

Conducting investment business without a licence is an offence under the Investment Business Act 2003, carrying fines of up to $250,000 and a maximum five years in prison.

Curtis, who is the former political campaign manager for Premier Ewart Brown in Warwick South Central, is facing separate allegations that he stole public funds and falsified expenditure from the Government’s faith-based tourism initiative.

He’s alleged to have plundered nearly $100,000 of Government money between April 2007 and April 2008 and to have dishonestly falsified account expenditure from the faith-based budget.

He’s also accused of stealing approximately $228,000 from Andrew Smith, relating to a construction company he once operated.

A Supreme Court trial is pending.

Those charges are in addition to a Montana State Auditor Office’s probe into an alleged multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme Curtis is said to have partly run, which is still proceeding in the United States.

Full story in tomorrow’s Royal Gazette