Labour Party donations accused seek suppression

Three people charged in connection to the Labour Party political donations case have argued they should continue to have name suppression.

The trial for the trio and four others was set to start yesterday at the High Court at Auckland. Instead, it will start today.

Yikun Zhang, Shijia (Colin) Zheng and Hengjia (Joe) Zheng are charged in connection to National Party donations alongside former National MP Jami-Lee Ross in 2020. Zhang and the two Zhengs also face charges alongside the three who have name suppression, in relation to election donations made to the Labour Party in 2017.

The judge-alone trial for both the Labour and National case will be heard by Justice Ian Gault. Justice Gault has reserved his decision on name suppression.

Yesterday, Marc Corlett, QC, acting for one of the men with name suppression, said naming him would have a devastating impact on his career and that there was a prospect of acquittal.

‘‘This is a Crown case that is thin to the point of vanishing.’’

Yvonne Mortimer-Wang submitted on behalf of the female defendant, saying that the primary grounds for continued suppression were her client’s health and the effect on her career.

Defence lawyer Sam Lowery, acting on behalf of the other man, said the Crown’s case against his client was narrow and there would be harm if he were named, including undue hardship to the man’s wife and her business.

Robert Stewart, acting on behalf of news publishers Stuff, NZME and RNZ, submitted that the trio did not meet the threshold for experiencing extreme hardship if they were named. He said the trial was about the integrity of political donations, and the names of the three defendants mattered.

Paul Wicks, QC, acting on behalf of the Crown, opposed continued suppression, saying there was legitimate public interest and open justice should prevail.

The charges

The six people connected to the Labour donations are charged with obtaining at least $34,840 by deception from payments made to the political party on or about March 28, 2017. Court documents show Zhang, Zheng, Zheng and another two men and a woman have been charged with adopting a fraudulent device or trick that allowed the donation to be paid via an intermediary bank account before being paid to, and retained by, the Labour Party.

The National charges, relating to Ross, Zhang and the two Zheng brothers, allege two $100,000 donations to the party were broken up into smaller chunks to get under the disclosure threshold.