SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.
The Serious Fraud Office has laid charges against a man they say lived off millions of dollars fraudulently obtained from others.
Mark Lawrence Ivil , 58, was on Thursday charged in the Tauranga District Court with 21 charges of obtaining by deception, 14 of obtaining by false pretence, two of using a forged document and two of obstructing an investigation.
It’s alleged that from 1990 to 2014 he fraudulently obtained $4.28 million. [Read more…]
Some investors in a fraudulent $9 million fund run from Christchurch will this week get a letter they never wanted to see.
It will be telling them they must pay money back.
The bad news comes in the latest update to investors by the receivers of Arena Capital.
The company, trading as BlackfortFX, purported to run a spectacularly successful foreign exchange scheme controlled by expert analysts and traders. [Read more…]
Hamish McIntosh: Is a Wellington lawyer who was an investor in one of New Zealand’s biggest Ponzi schemes . who has been ordered to pay back the fictitious profits he withdrew.
McIntosh, who lost his appeal for name suppression was an investor in Ross Asset Management (RAM) and was being pursued for hundreds of thousands of dollars in a “clawback” claim by liquidators.
McIntosh withdrew $954,000 from RAM’s Ponzi-style scheme before it collapsed.
In March the court heard the investor borrowed $500,000 from Westpac to invest with RAM in April 2007 and was paid out $954,000 in November 2011.
In a judgment issued on Tuesday Justice Alan MacKenzie ordered McIntosh to pay to the liquidators $454,047.62. However, he did not have to pay the liquidator his $500,000 investment.
Liquidator John Fisk said he believed the judge had made a fair and balanced assessment . [Read more…]
A financial adviser has pleaded guilty to stealing approximately $3 million in investor funds and shares.
Andrew Robinson, 42, the principal of mortgage broking and insurance firm Strategic Planning Group, appeared in the High Court at Auckland on Wednesday morning where he pleaded guilty to four charges of theft by a personal in a special relationship, one of improperly dealing with funds and one charge of fraudulently using a document.
He pleaded guilty to stealing about $2.5 million of Strategic Planning Group investor funds, and three other counts of stealing $50,000 to $258,000 from four named people.
Robinson was a registered financial adviser until being stripped of this status when the Serious Fraud Office and Financial Markets Authority began investigating.
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.
He was remanded in custody to a disputed facts hearing in June. Robinson and Mark Turnock, a co-director of Strategic Planning Group, also face charges brought by the FMA relating to making false statements.
Source: Stuff News. Published 13 May 2015
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/68505855/Financial-advisor-stole-3-million-from-investors
Cyber-criminals have targeted two New Zealand charities in automated attacks attempting to validate large numbers of stolen credit cards.
Internet watchdog NetSafe [a registered charity] has warned charities taking online donations to be alert after the attacks on the two organisations, which it did not name.
In the first incident, almost 50,000 attempts were made to rapidly submit fake donations through a website form with the aim being to test which credit cards could be used for subsequent online fraud or sold on to other internet scammers.
More than 2000 successful donations were made resulting in the charity having to enlist the help of their bank and merchant account provider to refund the fraudulent payments.
They also spent time dealing with enquiries from cardholders around the world questioning the transactions.
NetSafe offers advice for charities and website owners. You can also contact NetSafe via their freephone telephone number 0508 NETSAFE or report an incident online at www.theorb.org.nz.
For full story see:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/crime/news/article.cfm?c_id=30&objectid=11387380