SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Alex Swney – Heart of the City founder – sentenced to 5 years jail

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Alex Swney – the disgraced former boss of Auckland’s Heart of the City, has been sentenced to five years and seven months jail.

The 57-year-old, who has admitted to tax evasion and defrauding the business group, appeared in the Auckland District Court on Wednesday.

There will be no minimum non-parole period.

The maximum penalty for the dishonest use of documents charge is seven years in prison.

Swney is the founder and former chief executive of the publicly funded Heart of the City, which promotes businesses in central Auckland. He was granted a temporary reprieve in April, after a sentencing judge fell ill.

Swney was fired last year after the Inland Revenue Department filed charges over $1.8 million of unpaid taxes, and a further $1.3m in penalties and interest.

The ensuing scandal triggered a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into Swney’s longstanding involvement with the group.

He pleaded guilty to the SFO charges, admitting he had submitted fictitious invoices to Heart of the City which netted him over $2.5m.

For full story go to:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/69645518/heart-of-the-city-founder-alex-swney-sentenced-to-5-years-jail

Fraud Office defends difficult prosecution involving acquittal of 2 of 3 SCF chiefs

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The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is defending its decision to bring charges against three former South Canterbury Finance (SCF) heads after two of the trio were acquitted yesterday.

Former South Canterbury Finance chief executive Lachie McLeod, 50, and former director, accountant Robert White, 70, were found not guilty on all charges by Justice Paul Heath after a long and complex trial.

The pair are now considering legal action against the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for bringing the charges.

Former director, lawyer Edward Oral Sullivan, 72, was found guilty on five of nine charges, including making false statements and misuse of a document for pecuniary advantage. [He was director of SCF for 20 years from 23/04/90 to 31/03/10].

The SFO’s director, Julie Read, referred to the difficulties in bringing a case of this nature before the court. “This was a difficult and complex prosecution,” she said. [Read more…]

Former SCF director – Edward Sullivan – found guilty of fraud in relation to $1.58B company collapse

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A former director of South Canterbury Finance (SCF) has been found guilty of what has been billed the “biggest fraud in New Zealand’s history”, in relation to the company’s $1.58 billion collapse in 2010. In the High Court at Timaru this morning, Edward Sullivan, aged 72, a former lawyer, was found guilty of five of the nine charges he faced. He has been remanded on bail  and will face sentencing on 12 December 2014.

Edward Sullivan SCF director

Photo: Stuff News: Edward Sullivan (far left)

Justice Heath criticised the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into the company’s collapse, stating there might have been documents that showed transactions were being concealed but the “deficiencies in the investigation by the SFO office meant that evidence did not exist.”

Another CFC former director Bob White, 70, and former chief executive, accountant Lachie McLeod, 50, were found Not guilty on ALL counts.

The men faced a total of 18 charges under the Crimes Act, including theft by a person in a special relationship, obtaining by deception, false statements by the promoter of a company, and false accounting – each carrying maximum penalties ranging from seven to 10 years’ jail.

Full story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/10612568/SCF-trial-has-one-guilty-two-not-guilty-verdicts

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E-Gas managers jailed over fraud

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The former managers of retail gas supplier E-Gas have been imprisoned for three years, and 3-1/2 years respectively, for fraud of at least $9.75 million.

Sydney Lio John Hunt, 46, and Ronald Peter Rosenberg, 73, were last month found guilty on multimillion-dollar fraud charges for under-reporting the amount of gas supplied to customers.

Wellington District Court judge Bruce Davidson today sentenced Hunt to 3-1/2 years’ jail, and Rosenberg to three years.

Rosenberg was also ordered to pay $400,000 reparation within 28 days.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) alleged during the month-long trial that E-Gas under-reported consumption by about 950,000 gigajoules, worth about $8.7m, and penalties were avoided to the value of about $8.6m between May 2003 and October 2008.

To see full story published 30/05/14 go to:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/10099038/Jail-terms-for-E-Gas-managers

Serious Fraud Office’s crime blind spot highlighted in SSC Review

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The Serious Fraud Office does not have the ability to proactively target serious financial crime, and preventing this offending is probably better done by other agencies, says a Government-commissioned review.

When SFO director Julie Read took up her post last year she told the Herald the agency would like to be a “bit more proactive”.

Asked if the SFO’s more reactive approach would change, Read said this would be partly answered by a State Services Commission review, which was issued this week.

The report says the justice sector is focusing more on crime prevention.

But lead reviewer Debbie Francis said that while better access to intelligence could support earlier detection of financial crime, preventive activity was not supported by the SFO’s statutory mandate and was “probably better done by others”.

Francis said the SFO did not have the ability to develop a current, medium or long-term view of possible threats, and this was required to “proactively target high priority serious financial crime and corruption”.

The strongest “preventive element” of the SFO’s activity was the deterrent effect of its investigations and successful prosecutions.

Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11262890 [Read more…]