SFO files charges over Labour donation
WELLINGTON: Charges filed by the Serious Fraud Office over a Labour Party donation reveal an alleged illusion was created to conceal the amount and identity of the true donor, while providing them with ‘‘freedom from any public scrutiny’’.
Documents released to media yesterday afternoon by the Auckland District Court show six people — a solicitor, public servant, social worker and three businesspeople — face 12 charges.
The SFO filed the charges on Wednesday after an investigation into donations made to the Labour Party in 2017.
Each of the accused is charged with two counts of obtaining by deception over a donation of at least $34,840 for the Labour Party on about March 28, 2017.
The SFO alleges the identity of the donor was not disclosed in the party's annual return of party donations.
The group are accused of adopting a ‘‘fraudulent device, trick or stratagem’’ where the donation was paid via an intermediary account before being paid to, and retained by, the Labour Party.
Court papers also allege the group provided five names to ‘‘create the illusion’’ of five donations of sums of less than $15,000 to conceal the amount and identity of the actual donor.
The accused six are also further charged with unlawfully obtaining a benefit for the true donor by allowing them ‘‘freedom from any public scrutiny’’.
The group are due to first appear in court on May 24.
Labour Party general secretary Rob Salmond said in a statement: ‘‘The Labour Party has complied with the law’’.
He added the party has not sought any suppression orders.
The SFO said in a statement the defendants were entitled to seek name suppression and the financial crimes and corruption department would not name any of the accused until any name suppression issues had been resolved.
‘‘We note, however, that none of the defendants are sitting MPs or are current or former officials of the Labour Party.’’
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern claimed having numerous SFO probes into political party donations was an indication the current system was not working.
‘‘Let's do something about that, so let's look at the law,’’ she said.
She noted four New Zealand political parties had received donations which had either been investigated or questioned by the SFO. They are Labour, National, the NZ First Foundation and the Maori Party.
‘‘That sends a message to us, in the political system, that we should be looking at the way our regime works,’’ Ms Ardern said yesterday.
In late 2019, the Government said it would ban foreign donations to political parties and candidates and subsequently passed a law outlawing the process.
Despite this, there have been further calls for donation law reforms. — The New Zealand Herald