The former cop, the hapu¯, the fraud and the cost still being counted
A former cop’s brazen theft from his own hapu¯ left their dreams in tatters and reputations tarnished, but the full reckoning is yet to come. Deena Coster reports.
Agroup of beleaguered Taranaki hapu¯ trustees could be on the hook personally for the $486,000 it lost thanks to its thieving chief executive, whose crimes have had far-reaching consequences for all concerned.
Ma¯ori Land Court Judge Layne Harvey will soon consider all the evidence regarding the actions of Nga¯ti Te Whiti Whenua To¯pu trustees who were in charge when Shaun Keenan worked for it in the capacity of CEO.
If they are found to have acted unreasonably as trustees, they could be forced to dip into their own pockets to atone for the massive loss, caused by the deceit of one of their own.
Keenan, who served as a police officer for 21 years, is part of a wha¯nau which has high standing within both the Nga¯ti Te Whiti hapu¯ and Te Atiawa iwi.
His sister, Wikitoria Keenan, helped to negotiate the $87 million Treaty of Waitangi settlement for the iwi, capping off more than 20 years of service to her people, prior to her death in December 2014.
During Keenan’s tenure, in the job that he was paid $120,000 a year to do, he ripped off the trust to the tune of $486,000 between 2012-2017.
The deception-riddled theft caused shock waves within the hapu¯, tarnishing reputations and putting an end to the dream it had to build a multimillion-dollar marae near New Plymouth’s Nga¯motu beach.
In August last year, Keenan was jailed for three years and eight months and ordered to pay back $75,000, after he pleaded guilty to six charges of forgery, 36 of theft by a person in a special relationship and four of obtains by deception.
At sentencing, his lawyer explained the large-scale theft began because of financial strife Keenan found himself in after borrowing cash from third-tier lenders.
Detective Inspector Brent Matuku, who led the investigation, was less charitable afterwards and said Keenan had abused his position to siphon off money, motivated by a greed which devastated the Nga¯ti Te Whiti community.
It also cast a shadow over Keenan’s wife Kayanna Holley, who still works for police as a Ma¯ori/Iwi Liaison Co-ordinator in central and south Taranaki.
At Keenan’s sentencing, the judge said she had no prior knowledge of his crimes.
In the wake of Keenan’s theft becoming public in May 2017, Judge Harvey ordered an independent inquiry into the trust’s affairs three months later, with solicitor Spencer Webster appointed to do the work.
The review focused on trustee actions connected to their responsibilities regarding Keenan, the auditing of accounts and holding annual meetings.
The findings of the report, which took more than two years to finish, are now subject to scrutiny in the Ma¯ori Land Court.
While Webster was clear no trustees had colluded with Keenan or were involved in the crime, he raised ‘‘a number of performance issues’’ which could have contributed to the fraud, a transcript from an October court hearing said.
It’s a position refuted by the trustees, who maintain they acted honestly in relation to all dealings with trust property and had relied on ‘‘good faith’’ regarding the promises and assurances provided by Keenan, as he ‘‘was a person of significant moral standing in the wha¯nau and the community’’, which had been a reasonable thing to do.
They also submitted the trust took action as soon as the misappropriation of the money became apparent, firstly in terms of ending Keenan’s employment and then involving police.
In former trustee Peter Moeahu’s October 12 evidence, (his appointment spanned from August
2014 to March 2018), he pushed back at Webster’s view that all trustees had shown a high level of deference to Keenan.
Moeahu said he never put Keenan on a pedestal, and before his appointment, had tried to do his own due diligence by attempting to check out his history at the Ha¯wera police station but no information was divulged.
Keenan was in the force from
1990-2011 and worked in Taranaki,
Palmerston North, Levin and Dannevirke.
In November 1998, Keenan was acquitted on fraud charges following a jury trial in the Palmerston North District Court.
The prosecution was based on information gleaned from a Police and
Families Credit Union investigation which alleged Keenan had dishonestly misrepresented his financial assets when applying for two loans, worth $2000 and $6000 respectively, between 1995 and 1996.
In his October 12 evidence, Moeahu told the Ma¯ori Land Court he wanted to lay a complaint with police about Keenan’s financial misappropriation at the trust, but this was not supported by the whole board. Suspicions first arose about Keenan stealing from the trust in 2016, when its financial accounts were not prepared for auditing. An internal investigation was done and when Keenan was confronted, he agreed to pay the money back within two weeks.
When this didn’t happen, police were called in.
In his evidence to the Ma¯ori Land Court, Moeahu said the trustees ‘‘had an immense sense of social duty to their people, especially concerning the marae development’’.
However, he added the majority of trustees focused on this ahead of their financial and governance responsibilities, which left them open to manipulation by Keenan.
He said he regularly questioned Keenan over the finances, which included missing audited accounts for the 2014 year.
The 2014 accounts remained outstanding for more than two years, a point Judge Harvey told the court should have been a red flag for trustees.
At one point in his examination, Judge Harvey asked the following of Moeahu: ‘‘You have agreed with me that much of the trustees’ conduct was not reasonable, do you have an opinion on to what extent should the trustees be individually responsible to repay the trust?.’’
In reply, Moeahu said: ‘‘That opinion is that the trustees should not be held accountable to repay the losses. They were not instrumental in the misappropriation of funds. They were genuine in their efforts to advance the cause of their people as they saw best.’’
In his evidence, Webster said the trustees appeared to take what Keenan was telling them at face value and that this confidence reached a point of becoming unreasonable.
Webster said he could understand why being a former police officer and part of a respected wha¯nau might make them think he would act with integrity, but it was unclear to him what they could rely on regarding his competency as a chief executive.
Trust beneficiary Grant Knuckey has been following the case and believed there were
‘‘several liabilities’’ involved, including the design of the trust deed.
He also felt the trust had been let down by police regarding a lack of transparency around Keenan’s alleged past misdeeds, which have been the subject of some speculation since his arrest in 2017 and were touched on along with a number of other issues at October’s hearing.
In Moeahu’s evidence, for example, he spoke of being ‘‘told that Shaun Keenan had been dishonest in the police force, had been demoted and then released from service’’.
In response to this information, Stuff sought comment from police.
In a written response, Matuku, who is now the Ma¯ori responsiveness manager for Central District, said police had the same privacy obligations as any other employer, so could not comment on employment matters.
In relation to some trust beneficiaries’ view that police had a duty of care to pass on any concerns they might have had about allegations of Keenan’s past dishonesty, Matuku said they were ‘‘entitled to their own views on that particular point, and others, concerning the entire employment of Mr Keenan by the trust’’.
On December 14, the Ma¯ori Land Court will reconvene in New Plymouth and closing submissions
from the trustees’ lawyer will be heard before Judge Harvey issues a written decision.
Pauline Lockett, who was appointed as an independent trustee in the wake of the theft,
declined to comment on the current court proceedings.
When spoken to by Stuff this week, Moeahu said he was ‘‘relaxed’’ about the outcome, and his focus was on other projects he
had become involved in following his departure from the trust.
‘‘If the court finds that we are liable then so be it,’’ Moeahu said.
Keenan becomes eligible for parole in June 2021.