Six charged over 2017 donations
The Serious Fraud Office has charged six people in relation to election donations made to the Labour Party in 2017.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said the charges were filed at Auckland District Court on Wednesday. None of those involved were sitting MPs, or current or former officials of the Labour Party.
The six individuals are all charged with obtaining at least $34,840 by deception or without claim of right, made to the Labour Party on or about March 28, 2017.
Court documents released to Stuff, show five men and one woman have been charged with adopting a fraudulent device, trick, or stratagem, whereby the donation was paid via an intermediary bank account before being paid to, and retained by, the Labour Party and five names were provided to create the illusion of donations of sums less than $15,000 to conceal the full amount of the donation and the identity of the actual donors.
The charges come after the SFO began an investigation last July into donations made to the party in 2017.
After the charges were announced yesterday, Labour Party general secretary Rob Salmond said the party had complied with the law.
‘‘Labour has not sought any suppression orders from the courts.
‘‘As the matter is before the courts, we won’t be making any further comment,’’ Salmond said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, speaking to media in Auckland yesterday, said she did not know much about the charges. ‘‘We are in a situation now where four political parties have now received donations which have been investigated or questioned by the Serious Fraud Office, now that sends a message to us in the political system that we should be looking at the way our regime works.
‘‘Clearly it’s not currently, so let’s do something about that,’’ Ardern said.
Donations made to the National Party and the NZ First Foundation are the subject of active court cases, while donations made to the Ma¯ori Party are being investigated.
The prime minister said some issues investigated across the various political parties had been with regard to donations made to them, which had not always implicated the parties.
‘‘That’s still incumbent on us to say, ‘look this isn’t a good environment for anyone, for [any] political party’ and New Zealanders want to have confidence in the system, so let’s look at the law,’’ Ardern said.
In July 2020, when the investigation was launched, SFO director Julie Read would not elaborate on any of the particulars.