SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

It’s all about the country – not the sleazy politics – Opinion Piece – NZ Herald

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“Phil Goff’s political judgment deserted him when he allowed Darren Hughes to be a member of the parliamentary team arguing “politics is a grubby business” for a high-profile earthquake fund-raising debate when he knew the MP was already involved in a behind-the-scenes probe into sexual misconduct allegations…..

“Goff’s inability to apply consistent standards has also left him facing charges of hypocrisy. Unlike the Richard Worth affair, Hughes has not been accused of operating a political casting couch.

“But in Worth’s case, Goff showed no mercy when demanded why John Key did not take his Cabinet minister’s warrants from him the moment he knew he was facing allegations from two women.

“Goff now says he got it wrong and that “people are entitled to be regarded as innocent until they’re proven guilty”.

“It is a pity that the Labour leader did not apply that reasoning in 2009 when he failed to supply any real evidence to back his own allegation that Worth tried to entice the “strikingly beautiful” Labour activist Neelam Choudary with the offer of a job on the Lottery Grants Board. But that was then.”

Source: NZ Herald Opinon Piece by Fran O’Sullivan. Saturday 26 March. “It’s all about the country – not the sleazy politics.” For full article see: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10714939

NZ’s image tarnished by outcome survey on corruption

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New Zealand may not be the corruption free zone that the world perceives, with a new survey claiming 3.6 per cent of people admit to paying a bribe in the past 12 months.

Commissioned by anti-corruption organisation Transparency International, the survey found 3.6 per cent of New Zealanders said that either they, or someone in their household, had paid a bribe in that time….. Transparency International pointed to recent high profile arrests by the Serious Fraud Office as a sign of increased corruption. NZ’s image tarnished by briberty survey.

NZ’s image tarnished by bribery survey,  By Hamish Rutherford. The Dominion Post. December 10. 2010, p. A5.  [Read more…]

Bankrupting May Wang “in the interests of justice” – Assoc. Judge Hannah Sargisson

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Associate Judge Hannah Sargisson is reported as saying yesterday, that making prominent businesswoman May Wang bankrupt, while not an easy decision, was correct “in the interests of justice“.  But many may be asking: ‘what exactly does this (quoted) phrase mean and how does it relate to the broader concepts of “truth”, “moral absolutes”, “ethical standards”, “public interest” and “community standards” – given that “justice” is generally perceived to be connected to one of more of these ideas?

To answer this question one must bear in mind that the associate judge said that Ms Wang had not been forthright to creditors or the court and the disclosure of her interests in the UBNZ group, the vehicle through which Hong-Kong listed Natural Dairy had planned to buy the Crafar farms “has been entirely inadequate“. [Emphasis added] [Read more…]

NZ White Collar Crime: Two guilty in million-dollar fraud cases

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The SPCS contends that some of the more spectacular symptoms that reveal how New Zealand society has lost its moral bearings, include the steady growth in its million dollar white collar crime ‘industry’, involving fraud, bribery, theft, and dishonesty etc. Hitting the headlines with growing regularity it seems, are middle-aged grey-haired balding, or completely bald company directors, who, having been banned by the Registrar of Companies under section 385 of the Companies Act 1993 from directing, managing or promoting a company for up to five years; are subsequenly convicted and sentenced for committing multiple breaches of such banning orders, at the same time having committed serial criminal offences involving fraud etc.

Some having been banned because they pose a serious financial risk to the public because of their mismanagement of company financial matters and/or financial incompetence, despite having a degree or two such as an MBA, deliberately give the ‘the two-fingered salute’ to the Registrar of Companies who imposed the ban on them; caring little about any moral standards, the rule of law or the vulnerability of the public to their financial risk-taking and gross incompetence. Others banned from being directors after being declared bankrupts in the Courts, give the same insulting salute and box on as trumped up ‘directors’, in the self-declared role of “promoter” and/or highly paid “consultant”.

Such flagrant deception when exposed by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) makes a complete mockery of the sanctions (prohibitions) imposed on such former directors by the Companies Office via the Courts, unless such crimes are severely punished by Judges at sentencing. The SPCS contends that banned company directors who deliberately and knowlingly breach banning orders should be jailed long-term and made to make full reparation. It believes that the vast majority of New Zealanders would probably support this view.

It is reassuring to the public to read in he Dominion Post report of 3 December 2010 that… On 3 December “in Wellington District Court, bankrupt Alan Edwards Wycherley, 52, who had been using the name of clients of a debt management company to get money from an Auckland finance firm, was jailed for three years. He had pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud, nine charges of running a company while prohibited and two of illegally signing shareholder forms.”

He was one of “two Waikanae men who appeared before the courts the same morning, in unrelated million-dollar fraud cases, in which one falsely claimed a client was terminally ill and the other submitted dodgy loan applications.” Both were sentenced by Judge Behrens.

See full report: 3 December 2010 http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/4418021/Two-guilty-of-million-dollar-fraud