SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Charges laid against financial advisor Andrew Robinson over $3m Ponzi scheme

by Leave a Comment

A financial adviser has been charged with running a $3 million Ponzi scheme.

Andrew Robinson, 40, was charged this morning in the Auckland District Court with five charges of theft and one of dishonestly using a document.

Robinson was the principal of mortgage broking and insurance firm Strategic Planning Group.

He was a registered financial adviser until being stripped of this status when the Serious Fraud Office and Financial Markets Authority began investigating.

The charges allege that between 2010 and 2012, Robinson used $3m in investor funds to pay for personal and business expenses or to repay other investors, and lied to investors when proving reports.

Robinson and Mark Turnock, a co-director of Strategic Planning Group, also face charges brought by the FMA relating to making false statements.

FMA head of enforcement Belinda Moffat said the prosecution showed financial advisers were being held to account.

“It is critical that members of the public have available to them accurate financial statements when making informed investment decisions. Directors have an obligation to ensure that financial statements are not false or misleading,” she said.

SFO Acting Director, Graham Gill added: “The joint efforts of SFO and FMA have progressed this investigation effectively and efficiently. This demonstrates our commitment to working together to deliver a coordinated response to financial crime in New Zealand’s investment markets.”

Source: BusinessDay.co.nz Published 6/09/13

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/9129732/Charges-laid-over-3m-Ponzi-scheme

Political advocacy charity – Child Poverty Action Group Inc. – fails to file financial accounts

by Leave a Comment

Political advocacy group – Child Poverty Action Group Inc. [“CPAG”] – a registered charity (CC25387), and an incorporated society (No. 921414), is directed by Associate Professor Susan St John of the University of Auckland. [http://homes.eco.auckland.ac.nz/sstj003/] St John was appointed as an officer of CPAG on 5 June 2008 on the date the Society was granted charity status by the Charities Commission.

The NZ Herald reported yesterday that St John says CPAG was considering its next move in consultation with its lawyers, following a negative decision issued by the Court of Appeal against its challenge to the Government’s in-work tax credit, that claimed discrimination against beneficiaries. CPAG took the case to the Court of Appeal, which was heard in May 2013, after both The Human Rights Review Tribunal and the High Court ruled against it.

Who exactly are these CPAG lawyers? What fees have they been charging the charity to engage in political advocacy?

These questions are important as none of the financial accounts lodged by CPAG with the Charities Commission and/or Register of Incorporated Societies record any costs (or associated liabilities) incurred by it in legal action. CPAG remains in breach of the law having failed to file financial statements for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 – the three years prior to it gaining charity status. As an incorporated society, CPAG is required by law – the Incorporated Societies Act 1908 – to do so. How could such a group with its financial accounts in such apparent disarray and continuing to remain in breach of the law, be granted charity status and continue to operate as a political lobby group/political advocacy group?

References:

NZ Herald. Story by Lucy Bennett. 30 August 2013

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11117118

www.charities.govt.nz

www.societies.govt.nz

Child Poverty Action Group Inc: Court of Appeal rules against this charity’s appeal.

by Leave a Comment

Child Poverty Action Group Inc., [“CPAG”] a registered charity (Charity No. CC25387) deeply committed to political advocacy, has had its appeal to the Court of Appeal to have the Working for Families package made available to beneficiaries, dismissed. The appeal was heard in May 2013. Wikipedia describes CPAG as a “political advocacy group for the abolition of poverty and social exclusion, led by senior University of Auckland economist Susan St John” [appointed CPAG officer 5/06/08].

In 2006 the Government enacted the Working for Families tax-credit scheme to offer financial support for struggling families. CPAG which was registered as a charity with the Charities Commission on the 5th of June 2008, alleged the scheme’s in-work tax credit discriminated against people who receive income-tested benefit, as those who already received benefits were ineligible.

On Thursday 18 May 2006 CPAG defeated a New Zealand Government appeal in the High Court that would have prevented it from taking “legal action against the Government’s Working for Families package.” CPAG decided to take legal action because it felt that the Working for Families package discriminated against the children of parents on benefits. [see ref. 1]

CPAG had a total gross income of $156,962 for the financial year ended 31 March 2012, including $100,000 received from the JR McKenzie Trust and $30,729 from donations. Its total expenses were $118,298 and from that $42,600 was paid out in wages for “administration” and $59,288 in wages to a “researcher”. The total wages $101,888 paid out to three people employed part-time and together working on average a total of 60 hours per week, plus ACC ($567 paid on behalf of employees); constitutes 65% of total gross income of the charity. If the “office administration” costs of $3,393 are added to these expenses, the figure increases to $67%.

The Office of Human Rights Proceedings (OHRP) represented CPAG in both the Human Rights Tribunal and the High Court cases relating to the  In-Work Tax Credit case.

As an incorporated society (No. 921414), registered as such on 13 August 1998 under the Incorporated Societies Act 1908; CPAG has failed to comply with the law and file Financial Statements for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 with the Companies Office. Despite these serious breaches of the law, the Charities Commission registered the entity as a charity on 5th June 2008.

CPAG officers amended the entity’s constitution on 10 April 2008, shortly before it was registered as a charity with the Charities Commission. Nothing in the constitution empowers or authorises its officers to take legal action in a political advocacy role to challenge existing laws as part of its “charitable activities”.

References:

Ref 1. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/child-poverty-action-group/news/article.cfm?o_id=600551&objectid=10382423

2. www.societies.govt.nz

3. www.charities.govt.nz

4. Dominion Post, August 31, p. A3.

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Poverty_Action_Group_(Aotearoa_New_Zealand)

Further reading:

Poverty group’s appeal against tax credit dismissed.

By Lucy Bennett. 31 August 2013

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11117118

Child Poverty Action Group website:

http://www.cpag.org.nz/

http://www.cpag.org.nz/in-focus/cpag-in-the-court-of-appeal/

Child Poverty Action Group v Attorney-General: employment status discrimination

See: Links –

Tribunal Decision

http://www.nzlii.org/nz/cases/NZHC/2010/1568.html

High Court Decision

http://www.hrc.co.nz/office-of-human-rights-proceedings/part-1a-decisions 

Guilty plea to country’s largest fraud

by Leave a Comment

A man has pleaded guilty to $115 million fraud – the single largest fraud in New Zealand history.

The former manager of Ross Asset Management David Robert Gilmour Ross, 63, has pleaded guilty to five Serious Fraud Office charges.

They were false accounting and fraud and three from the Financial Markets Authority of providing a financial service when he was not registered to do so, made false or misleading statements to get authorisation as a financial adviser and supplying information to the authority that he knew to be false or misleading.

He has been remanded in custody until October for a date to be set for sentencing.

Ross lured new investors to his Ross Asset Management fund with promises of returns of up to 30 per cent.

His lawyer Gary Turkington did not apply for bail before Wellington District Court judge Geoff Ellis.

SFO prosecutor Kristy McDonald asked the judge to order a reparation report.

The SFO charges alleged Ross ran a Ponzi scheme, which he disguised by falsely reporting clients’ investments.

Large portions of client portfolios were shown as invested through a non-existent broker ‘Bevis Marks’, resulting in a $380 million overstatement of investment positions.

More than 1200 RAM (Ross Asset Management) client accounts had been affected by the scheme.

For full story go to

Dominion Post 29 August 2013.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/9101568/Guilty-plea-to-countrys-largest-fraud

Are same sex marriages performed before 22 August 2013 unlawful and void?

by Leave a Comment

There is a widespread belief that same-sex couples will be lawfully able to marry from today Monday 19 August. The Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013 comes into effect on 19 August 2013. However the Marriage Act 1955 provides that to be married a couple must first give notice to the registrar of an intention to marry, and be issued with a marriage license.  The license is to be issued by the registrar not earlier than the third day after the notice is given. A same-sex couple therefore cannot legally apply for a marriage license before 19 August – as they would not lawfully be able to marry before then. A notice of intention must certify that the applicants are lawfully able to marry – specifically that “that there is no lawful impediment to the intended marriage”. Until 19 August that would not be the case for a same-sex couple, as the new law was not yet in effect. So any notices submitted before the 19th would be invalid.

The Marriage Forms Regulations 1995 containing the Notice of Intention to Marry forms were amended by the Marriage (Forms) Amendment Regulations 2013 – the latter coming into force from 16 August 2013.  However these merely described the new forms required, and did not legalise same-sex marriage. If the earliest date that a legal notice can be given of an intended marriage is 19 August, the earliest that a registrar could issue a valid license would be 22 August. In practice the earliest that a legal same-sex marriage could occur would also be 22 August 2013. Any earlier marriages would be unlawful, and void.

A Media Release issued on 12 August 2013 by the Registrar-General of Births Deaths and Marriages, Jeff Montgomery (the Department of Internal Affairs) stated

Couples will use the forms for marriages occurring from 19 August, the first day same sex couples can get married …

“The new notification of marriage form includes the terms ‘bride’, ‘bridegroom’ and ‘partner’. Couples need to fill out the form and then one of the couple needs to bring the form to a Registry Office, make a statutory declaration in front of a Registrar of Marriages and pay the fee. Three days later we will issue the couple a marriage licence.”

Comment: Those same-sex couples who signed (only one member is required to do so ) and submitted a Notice of Intended Marriage on Friday 16 August 2013 – indicating by way of “solemn declaration” that they knew of “no legal impediment to the intended marriage” made false declarations in breach of the Oaths and Declaration Act 1957. Under the Marriage Act 1955 which remained in force until midnight Sunday 18 August 2013, they would not have been entitled to get married at the time they signed the statutory declaration so the Notice of Intended Marriage is INVALID. The earliest it could have been lawfully signed was on 19 August 2013 when the Marriage (Redefinition of Marriage) Act 2013 came into force.

See: Statutory Declaration Point 4. [to be completed in front of the Registrar]

http://legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2013/0294/17.0/DLM5349711.html

4. that there is no lawful impediment to the intended marriage

And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true and by virtue of the Oaths and Declarations Act 1957