The news follows an announcement made by Centro late last year that it was struggling to refinance $3.9 billion in short-term debt due to the global credit crisis.

The company has now admitted thatin its June 2007 audited accounts, a portion of its $2.5 billion reported non-current liabilities should possibly have been classified as “current liabilities”. This mistake masked the fact that the company was unable to meet its short-term debts, The Australian reported.

On 15 January, the company also announced the resignation of its CEO Andrew Scott, who will be replaced by the CEO of the company’s US operations, Glenn Rufrano. While Scott is in line to receive a $3 million payout, Centro shareholders haven’t been quite so lucky. As this story goes to press, Centro shares are trading at $0.54 — a far cry from May last year when they were hitting the $10 mark.