Cops hunt for Team NZ’s missing cash

America’s Cup defender Team New Zealand has struck back over questions about financial management, including an alleged fraud in which more than $1 million of event money was paid into a Hungarian bank account.

The team and its event arm denied any wrongdoing and said most of the issues raised in a June 22 letter from the government and Auckland Council had been addressed.

New Zealand Police confirmed they and counterparts in Hungary were investigating an alleged scam in which a payment the team thought it was making to a contractor ended up in a different bank account.

The team’s chief executive, Grant Dalton, told Stuff the incident was ‘‘100 per cent external’’ but the person who had made the payment without checking a changed bank account number was no longer employed.

The alleged scam was highlighted in a June 22 letter to Team New Zealand and its event arm America’s Cup Event Limited (ACE), along with a draft report by auditor Beattie Varley that was commissioned by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment – the Government’s funding agency for the 2021 cup event.

In a detailed response to issues raised in the letter, Team New Zealand said there had been no loan from ACE to the sailing team, nor an ‘‘unwillingness to provide information that had been requested’’. The team said allegations about the use of public money were ‘‘baseless.’’

The allegations and Government audit are part of a complicated scenario involving the three parties in ACE and a contractor it terminated over alleged leaks.

Dalton said the payment from ACE to a Hungarian bank account was reported to MBIE and the police as soon as it emerged.

A hacker had gained access to material belonging to a European-based television contractor, including details of contracts and payments, he said. The team had received a fake email just ahead of a scheduled payment, advising of a Hungarian bank account into which the money should go. A seven-figure sum had been paid.

Dalton said only a portion of the payment had been recovered.