Cup managers turn whistleblower

AUCKLAND: Three key executives employed by America’s Cup Events Ltd (Ace), the company responsible for mounting the regatta, have turned whistleblower and are assisting the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment with the investigation into the use of public money to run the event.

BusinessDesk has confirmed that Tom Mayo, Grant Calder, the principals of sports event management firm Mayo & Calder, and their accountant, Michael Choy, have made protected disclosures to MBIE under the Protected Disclosures Act.

MBIE on Thursday announced it was suspending further payments to Ace ‘‘pending the outcome of the process’’ to investigate claims it had received. Some $29 million of $40 million has been paid to Ace under ‘‘milestone’’ payments relating to the race fee for the event.

BusinessDesk had already independently established that all three were no longer at work at Ace.

‘‘Our clients cannot make any comment,’’ MinterEllisonRuddWatts partner Richard Wells said in an email.

Mayo & Calder were contracted to work for Ace, reporting directly to Grant Dalton, who is chief executive of both Ace and Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ), the defender of the America’s Cup, which will be raced next year.

This week’s suspension of funding followed earlier claims by Dalton that the team had uncovered ‘‘informants’’ within the organisation who had made ‘‘entirely incorrect’’ allegations which had forced MBIE to investigate ‘‘despite our belief that the motives of the informants were extremely suspect’’.

Numerous calls by BusinessDesk to a range of highly placed observers of the America’s Cup process point to a serious falling out between the Mayo & Calder team and Dalton, who is legendary for his competitiveness and demands for intense loyalty, and whose pursuit of the America’s Cup goes back to the early 2000s.

ETNZ is chaired by the founder of The Warehouse, Stephen Tindall, and has former Toyota NZ managing director Bob Field on its board. Ace is chaired by Tina Symmans, one of New Zealand’s most respected communications and lobbying specialists.

Ministers, officials and close observers of the regatta expect the current issues to be resolved and for the event to proceed.

Total Government funding for the event runs to $136.5 million, including the event fee, Auckland Council having committed $113 million and having another $20 million available to assist with crowd management and other publicgood activities to ensure crowds watching the racing are wellmanaged.

Sources close to the council suggest that most of that spending has already occurred, but other sources suggested there might be opportunities for the Government to make savings on an event that will inevitably attract only a fraction of the previously anticipated highrolling international visitors who will avoid travel if Covid19 quarantine protocols are still in place.