MP hopeful faces company probe
A businessman being groomed for a political future with the National Party appears to be in breach of the Companies Act by listing three different residential addresses for his various directorships.
Colin Shijia Zheng and his business partner Yikun Zhang were discussed in a secretly recorded conversation between renegade MP Jami-Lee Ross and National leader Simon Bridges about a $100,000 donation Zhang allegedly made.
Ross alleges Bridges broke electoral law by not declaring the donation correctly, and went to the police with evidence he says proves Bridges is guilty. Bridges denies the allegation.
Zheng, who was mentioned on the recording as a possible National candidate, is a director of nine companies registered with the Companies Office, but lists three different addresses as his residential address.
Zhang is a director of five companies and lists two residential addresses.
Both Zheng and Zhang have been approached for comment.
A Companies Office spokeswoman said it was an offence for a director of a company to not have their correct residential address registered.
She said the agency would contact the companies to follow up.
Under the Companies Act
1993 it is required that companies record the full name and one residential address of where each director lives.
A change to a director’s residential address must be notified to the Companies Office within 20 working days of the company learning of the change.
‘‘It is an offence if the board of a company fails to comply with this requirement and a director of a company who is convicted of this offence is liable to a fine not exceeding
$10,000,’’ the spokeswoman said.
If an address on the register is incorrect the Companies Office has the power to remove a company from it.
Anco Properties Development and two other companies Zheng is a director of, Anco International and Trans Tasman International, all have different addresses in Auckland’s Flat Bush, which Zheng also lists as his residential addresses.
When Stuff visited Anco International, Zheng was not there. A staff member said he was in China.
Zheng does not own any property under his own name, but Anco Properties Development owns four properties in Flat Bush and one in Tamaki Heights. It previously owned about 50 other properties in Flat Bush.
Another company he is director of, Anco Construction, previously owned about 20 properties in Flat Bush.
Zhang also has two residential addresses listed with the Companies Office. He lists his $10.3 million home in Remuera as his address for four of the five companies he is a director of.
However, he lists his residential address for his Chao Shan Trustee directorship as being a $1.8m property in Fairview Heights in Auckland.
National Party president Peter Goodfellow last week said Zheng had entered the party’s Candidate College for the 2020 election. The college acts as a boot camp for potential candidates, but doesn’t guarantee selection.
Zheng and Zhang are leaders of the Chao Shan General Association of New Zealand, an organisation Zhang established in 2014 for Chinese New Zealanders from Chaoshan, a region in the Chinese city of Guangdong.
Descendants from the region are called Teochew. On Friday it was revealed Goodfellow and two MPs had been made honorary chairmen of the 20th Teochew International Conference, to be held in Auckland next year.
Zheng, 33, became a New Zealand resident through the skilled employment category in 2007.
More than 100 companies were removed from the Companies Office register in the 2018 financial year for failing to confirm or correct residential address information.
In June the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment said some company directors did not list their correct home addresses in a bid to make it hard for people to link the companies they controlled.