Petricevic, 62, was found guilty earlier this month on 18 charges for misleading investors and of knowingly making false statements that Bridgecorp had never missed a payment of interest or principal.
Some of the charges Petricevic was convicted of under the Crimes Act carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.
Bridgecorp's financial controller Rob Roest was convicted on the same 18 charges as Petricevic, while fellow director Peter Steigrad was found guilty of six Securities Act charges.
Roest and Steigrad will be sentenced on May 18.
According to evidence tabled in the trio's four-month-long High Court trial, Bridgecorp began missing payments to investors on February 7, 2007. The company collapsed around five months later, owing $459 million to 14,500 investors.
Petricevic maintained in court he did not know about the missed payments in February and did not become aware of one set until he read about it in the newspaper.
However, in what began something of a blame game in the trial, Roest said he told Bridgecorp's former managing director about issues with money going to investors on time.
Petricevic denied this and his lawyer, Charles Cato, suggested Roest may have a motive to implicate his fellow director, saying it was "human nature" for a co-accused to attempt to "mitigate their position" when standing trial. But Justice Geoffrey Venning ruled that Roest's evidence was reliable.
"Given the situation Bridgecorp faced at the time, it is logical that Mr Roest and Mr Petricevic would discuss Bridgecorp's cash flow and its commitments to investors ... Mr Roest had nothing to gain and no reason to withhold information regarding the missed payments from Mr Petricevic," the judge said.
Although Petricevic accused the finance director of being more "hands-on" than he was at Bridgecorp, both faced the same fate - guilty of all the 18 charges they faced.
When Petricevic, Roest and Steigrad were found guilty, out-of-pocket Bridgecorp investors called for lengthy jail sentences.
One investor, Rex Warren lost $1 million in the company and said the guilty verdict was the right outcome but it brought little closure.
"Of course they're guilty, but the punishment doesn't fit the crime.
"I would be willing to pull the lever or pull the trigger if they were hung," said the Katikati man.
Warren believed his loss could have been avoided.
"I can say we made mistakes, but in my case most of the (Bridgecorp) staff knew what was happening when we invested our money but they didn't say anything."
Former Bridgecorp director Gary Urwin, who pleaded guilty to misleading investors and was sentenced to two years' jail, has indicated he will appeal this.
Former Bridgecorp chairman Bruce Davidson pleaded guilty the same charges and was sentenced to nine months' home detention last October and ordered to pay $500,000 reparations and perform 200 hours of community work.
- Hamish Fletcher
