SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Warning over New Zealand shell companies

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NEW ZEALAND has been urged to tighten its company registration process by one of the authors of a major international study into the use of anonymous shell companies by terrorist and corrupt government officials.

Global Shell Games: Experiments in Transitional Relations, Crime and Terrorism by Jasson Sharman, Michael Findley and Daniel Nelson, [to be] published later this month in the United States, launched a series of stings to determine whether international regulations were met ensuring beneficial owners of shell  companies were recorded.

The study made 7400 inquiries of 3700 incorporation agents in 181 countries – including New Zealand – to determine if Financial Action Task Force recommendations were followed.

The results found patchy adherence to regulations. The case of SP Trading, a New Zealand shell company that leased a plane used to run guns from North Korea to Iran via Bangkok in 2010, opens the book and receives considerable scrutiny.

SP Trading was formed by incorporation firm the GT Group, which had enlisted Burger King cook Lu Zhang as a nominee director. Zhang was paid $15 for each directorship, and knew nothing of who was using her company to breach United Nations arms sanctions.

Sharman, a professor at Griffith University in Australia, said the SP Trading case was “lurid” and the GT Group’s shell companies had been involved in other cases of  alleged government corruption.

Following international outcry and an ultimately futile investigation into the SP Trading case, the GT Group left New Zealand, rebranded and was last reported to be operating in Malaysia.

Sharman agreed New Zealand’s present regulations, allowing offshore directors of locally registered companies , effectively puts information about beneficial owners out of reach of domestic authorities. [Read more…]

No-show in court for tax adviser – John Patrick Renshaw

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A warrant to arrest a Wellington tax adviser charged with providing false tax returns totalling over $270,000 is to be issued if he does not show up in court in two weeks.

Patrick John Renshaw, 66, of Ngaio faces 42 charges of aiding and abetting Resource Management Research and Burma Holdings to apply PAYE and student loan deductions to a purpose other than payment to IRD, along with personal charges of knowingly providing false tax returns for himself and Margaret Gallaher, and of declaring a salary he did not receive to get a tax refund.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years jail or a $50,000 fine.

Neither Renshaw nor a lawyer for him were in court when the case was called before Wellington District Court judge David Ongley, who then ordered a warrant to lie in court for two weeks to allow Renshaw to appear.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9793869/No-show-in-court-for-tax-adviser

Note: Patrick John Renshaw is sole director of  Resource Management Research Services Limited and holds 178 (89%) of the company shares. He is sole director and sole shareholder of  Burma Holdings (2006) Limited. Margaret Claire Gallaher was a director of Burma Holdings from 30/01/07 to 16/12/10.

Renshaw must appear in court

Wellington tax adviser Patrick John Renshaw, charged with providing false tax returns totalling more than $270,000, has two weeks to appear in court or an arrest warrant will be issued. Renshaw, 66, of Ngaio, faces 42 charges of aiding and abetting Resource Management Research [Services Limited – Co. No. 816377] and Burma Holdings [2006) Limited – Co. No. 1902353] to apply PAYE and student loan deductions to a purpose other than payment to IRD, along with persionakl charges of knowingly providing false tax returns for himself and Margaret Gallaher and of declaring a salary he did not receive to get a tax refund. The charges carry a maximum pernalty of five years’ jail or a $50,000 fine. Renshaw is also facing bankruptcy proceedings in the High Court. Neither Renshaw nor a lawyer for him were in Wellington District Court when the case was before Judge David Ongley yesterday.
The Dominion Post Thursday, March 6, 2014. P. A3.

Former fraudster faces bankruptcy

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A former fraudster who was jailed for seven years for fraud totalling $6.4 million is facing bankruptcy unless he pays nearly $12,000.

The Bank of New Zealand yesterday sought for Patrick John Renshaw to be adjudicated bankrupt in the High Court at Wellington for failure to pay an undisclosed amount.

But the application was adjourned for a month, after an agreement was reached between the two parties.

Renshaw now has to pay a compromised amount of the debt, totalling $11,296.52, by April 7, or face bankruptcy.

Renshaw was involved in the high-profile collapse of Upper Hutt law firm Renshaw Edwards in 1992.

He was released on parole 32 months into a seven-year sentence on 42 charges of fraud and theft involving $6.4m of clients’ funds.

His partner, Keith Edwards, was jailed for six years on 51 charges of theft involving $3.5m.

Edwards served two years and seven months of his six-year sentence.

The bizarre collapse of the firm occurred after the two partners committed the respective multimillion-dollar frauds separately and unknown to each other.

The collapse eventually hit the pockets of 2800 of the country’s senior lawyers, resulting in tougher control of lawyers’ trust funds.

In 1996 the Law Society settled more than 400 Renshaw Edwards claims totalling about $29m.

The settlement cost the senior lawyers $10,000 each, as well as their annual $500 fidelity fund fee because their fidelity fund could not cover the payout.

The men were prosecuted for less than $10m by the Serious Fraud Office but the society accepted the men had caused clients losses of $29m.

Source: Fairfax NZ News. Published 04/03/14

See: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/9785712/Former-fraudster-faces-bankruptcy

Note: Patrick John Renshaw is sole director of  Resource Management Research Services Limited and holds 178 (89%) of the company shares. He is sole director and sole shareholder of  Burma Holdings (2006) Ltd, Window Tint and Signs Ltd (In Liquidation since 18 June 2012) and many other companies.

Brian Damien Hunter, convicted serial fraudster, on trial for allegedly claiming to be a lawyer

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A man has gone on trial in Napier, accused of impersonating a lawyer.

Brian Hunter, 54, faces two charges of obtaining by deception, both of which relate to his hiring of removal firms.

He is alleged to have told them he was a lawyer from the Kapiti Coast named Michael O’Hara, acting on behalf of a client called Brian Shaw.

See full story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/hawkes-bay/9758891/Man-on-trial-for-claim-to-be-lawyer

More on serial fraudster Brian Damien Hunter:

Banned Company director

[Read more…]

Transparency International (NZ) past director – Michael Vukcevic – “a CV fraudster”

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High-level businessman’s CV false (Story by Phil Kitchin – Dominion Post 25/02/14)

The chairman of an influential business council with close links to the Government’s bid for a Middle East free trade agreement is a CV fraudster.

Fairfax NZ can reveal that Michael Vukcevic – head of the Auckland-based Middle East Business Council – falsely claimed to have a law degree from Victoria University.

Mr Vukcevic was also a director of anti-corruption agency Transparency International when he lied in his successful bid for the top New Zealand job at multinational law and patent firm, Baldwins.

The fraud will embarrass the firm, which was last year a finalist in the New Zealand Law Awards for a second year in a row.

It will also embarrass the Government because of the ties between the council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NZ Trade and Enterprise.

As chair of the Middle East council, Mr Vukcevic rubs shoulders with powerful figures from MFAT – including Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully.

Mr Vukcevic used the fictitious degree to become chief executive at Baldwins in 2012.

He resigned in November last year citing “personal reasons”.

Victoria University has confirmed Mr Vukcevic’s only qualification from Victoria was a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Mr Vukcevic has not responded to multiple approaches asking for an explanation.

His seven-page CV also includes a claim he was a director for a recruitment firm. That claim is also false.

When he was at Baldwins the company’s website claimed Mr Vukcevic was a “Registered Patent Attorney” in Australia and New Zealand but he does not appear on the registers for either country.

He also claimed to be a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand but he is not registered as either with the Law Society.

Mr Vukcevic’s CV describes him as a “dynamic Chief Executive with a proven track record of success.”

It says his experience is across large public and corporate companies, private companies and Government.

Under the education, the CV claims Mr Vukcevic obtained a law degree and a BA from studying at Victoria from 1989 to 1992.

See full story:  http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/9762437/High-level-businessmans-CV-false.

Note:

1. The New Zealand Middle East Business Council website’s “Governance” listings describes Michael Vukcevic as:

 “current chairman of the New Zealand Middle East Business Council, and a past director of Transparency International (NZ).” [Suzanne Snively ONZM is currently Executive Chair of TINZ.
See: http://www.nzmebc.org.nz/about/governance/
2. TI(NZ) is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promote transparency, accountability and integrity in Government and civil society.
3.  Mr Vukcevic has not been investigated by police in relation to his actions and has not been charged with any crime.Dishonestly taking or using a document with “intent to obtain any property, service, pecuniary advantage, or valuableconsideration”is an offence under section 228 of the Crimes Act.
see http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/293029/ceo-steps-down-after-fake-degree-revealed
Also see:
CEO [Michael Vukcevic] steps down after fake degree exposed. 25/02/14
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11209767
UPDATE: 26/02/14
CV Fraudster comes clean
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9767240/CV-fraudster-comes-clean