SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Nelson teens admit beating

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Two Nelson teenagers have admitted beating a 16-year old schoolmate in an hour long ordeal before ordering him to strip to his underpants and lie in a crucifixion position while they mocked him and took photographs.

The victim lost consciousness during the attack at a Nelson school last month, in which he was punched, kicked, stomped on and beaten with pieces of timber. The two youths admitted injuring with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, aggravated robbery and kidnapping when they appeared in Nelson Youth Court on Friday. The court was told that the youths took the victim’s cashflow card and he offered to give them his PIN [card security] number in an attempt to placate threm. The two yoths will reappear in court on June 22.

Source Dominion Post June 13, 3011, p. A3

NZ companies linked to money laundering

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Criminals are using shell companies set up under New Zealand’s lax company laws to launder money.

Companies created by an Auckland firm operating out of Queen St have been linked to Russian crime, a Mexican drug cartel and Romanian extortion.

A 16-month Fairfax Media investigation has also tied companies created by Geoffrey Taylor and his sons Ian and Michael, who work out of 363 Queen St, to a company that smuggled arms out of North Korea.

The government admits there is a problem but says it has had other priorities.

Sunday Star Times. 29 May 2011.

For full article “NZ firms linked to money launderng” by Michael Field, see:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5069771/NZ-firms-linked-to-money-laundering

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LA Zombie – Herald on Sunday reporter seeks responses

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Here is the email received by the Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc. (SPCS) from Herald on Sunday reporter Andre Hueber on Friday April 29, 2011 at 10.38 AM regarding LA Zombie, a film we were told was that was prevented from being screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival in July 2010. The Festival organisers had proposed to screen it, but the necessary ‘exemption’ for screening an unclassified film was not granted in that instance (pers. comm. Paul Tenison, Acting Applications Manager, Classification Branch, Australian Attorney General’s Department).

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Steve Crow – Eden Digital Ltd and US porn sources

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The Dominion Post reports today:  “[Stephen Peter] Crow, who is desperate not to carry a conviction as it would bar him from entering the United States where much of his pornography is obtained: said “I plead not guilty” [before Judge Russell Johnson in the Auckland District Court yesterday].

Crow’s “not guilty” plea was entered in relation to the Ministry of Economic Development’s allegation that he breached a banning Order imposed on him by the Registrar of Companies (served personally on him on 14 May 2010), preventing him for four years under s. 385 of the Companies Act 1993 from directing, managing or promoting a company in Australasia.

The Ministry has highlighted Crow’s promotion and management last year, of  the NZ-based porn distribution company Eden Digital Ltd, now directed soley by John M Carr CPA, a San Antonio United States-based businessman and investor, as an example of Crow’s breach of the Order. (Mr John Malcolm Carr is owner, principal and registered agent of Better Business Services Inc. a US-registered corporation that owns a number of websites marketing and promoting hard core porn).

Crow told the Judge Russell Johnson yesterday that he would agree to plead guilty to the charge, but only if he was granted a “discharge without conviction” under s. 106 of the Sentencing Act 2002. The Judge naturally refused this ‘deal’ pointing out to Crow what most informed people already know, that such a discharge, if granted, is always conditional on the accused entering a guilty plea.

The Judge therefore declined the discharge application and indicated that if Crow pleaded guilty he would impose a fine. As noted, Crow refused to admit guilt and chose to enter a “not guilty” plea – forcing the matter to a defended hearing. This has been set down for three days commencing 12 September 2011.

If a person is convicted of a breach of s. 385 of the Act, a custodial sentence  of up to five years jail or a fine of up to $200,000 can be imposed by the Court.