SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

John Clancy: Troubled Global group costs Christchurch City Council another $37,000

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A building group that has already cost the Christchurch City Council $166,000 owes it another $37,000.

The council last week wrote off $165,831 owed by Global Developments (New Zealand) Ltd (now in liquidation and renamed Derby Grey Ltd) for development contributions on 12 units in Worcester St, Linwood.

Housing New Zealand (HNZ) bought the units last year for $4 million.

Global Developments is part of the Global Homes Group connected to Auckland businessman John Edward Clancy.

John Clancy 

English-born John Edward Clancy heads a troubled building group in Christchurch

The council has now liquidated another company in the group. Global Developments 511 Madras Street Ltd was put into liquidation on July 10 by the High Court in Auckland

The company owes the council $35,416 for a building consent and the council spent another $2000 putting the company into liquidation………

In addition, the Companies Office has started an investigation into allegations Global company documents submitted for registration in the Companies office are incorrect.

Under the Companies Act, directors and shareholders must give their correct residential addresses for certain documents.

Clancy appears to have entered the address of his business premises as his residential address. His Auckland accountant, Richard Somerville, who is a director of a trustee company holding shares in the Global group, appears to have done the same.

Somerville said he was vacating his role with the Global group and would be approaching the Companies Office about the alleged irregularities.

Clancy could not be contacted.

A spokesman for the Companies Office said the allegations about the document irregularities made by the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards [“SPCS”] were being investigated.

“Where non-compliance is identified the Companies Office undertakes administrative action to obtain compliance,” he said.

Prosecution would be considered in exceptional cases, the spokesman said.

For full Story by reporter Martin Van Beynen. Published 16 July 2015, go to:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/70245599/troubled-global-group-costs-christchurch-city-council-another-37000

New Zealand Petroleum Exploration Limited: ‘defunct’ company with issues of non-compliance

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The Registries Integrity and Enforcement Team (RIET) are part of the Companies Office.  Its  role is to ensure the integrity of the registers that are administered by the Companies Office, by proactively monitoring their use.  RIET primarily acts by seeking compliance or preventing misuse but, where appropriate, it prosecutes offences on behalf of the Registrar of Companies – Mandy McDonald.

The public are encouraged to contact RIET if they become aware of company directors who are failing to comply with the law.

see: http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/about-us/enforcement/contact-registries-integrity-enforcement

To help understand the crucial role of RIET consider the following case study: [Read more…]

More on the Registries Integrity and Enforcement Team – Companies Office

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Failing to file an annual return is an issue of non-compliance to be dealt with by The Registries Integrity and Enforcement Team (RIET), part of the Companies Office.  Its role is to ensure the integrity of the registers that are administered by the Companies Office, by proactively monitoring their use.  RIET primarily acts by seeking compliance or preventing misuse but, where appropriate, it prosecutes offences on behalf of the Registrar of Companies – Mandy McDonald.

Why would a well-qualified company director(s) fail to file an annual return when for example he/she knows that his/her company owes money to the IRD and/or some other creditor(s)?

Is it because he/she naively hopes that the company debts will slip under the radar of the IRD/creditors and the Registrar will simply strike the company off the register before debts can be settled? It does make one wonder! Responsible directors aware that their company is insolvent are required by law to cease trading and call in a receiver or put the company into voluntary liquidation with shareholder support. This costs money and some company directors – seek to avoid their responsibilities because they have vested financial interests.

Consider the case study of ……. [Read more…]

Companies Office – Registries Integrity and Enforcement

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The Registries Integrity and Enforcement Team (RIET) are part of the Companies Office. Its  role is to ensure the integrity of the registers that are administered by the Companies Office, by proactively monitoring their use.  RIET primarily acts by seeking compliance or preventing misuse but, where appropriate, it prosecutes offences on behalf of the Registrar of Companies – Mandy McDonald.

Companies Office enforcement guidelines dated 1 July 2013 can be located at:

http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/about-us/enforcement/policy-guidelines#register-integrity

An example of non-compliance is the case of a company director(s) who persistently fail to ensure company Annual Returns are filed on time. Non-compliance can lead to prosecution and/or a company being struck off the Register of Companies by the Registrar. [Read more…]

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…]