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SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

New defender of NZ business reputation

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The new Registrar of Companies has signalled a crackdown on dodgy shell companies that take advantage of New Zealand’s reputation for clean business.

Low-profile public servant Mandy McDonald took over from the long-serving Neville Harris earlier this month and in one of her first speaking engagements, at the Corporate Registries Forum in Auckland, said New Zealand had to be vigilant in protecting its reputation.

“Over the past decade we have taken pride in our consistently high World Bank rankings for ease of starting a business and ease of doing business. For a small and distant nation, this remains an important aspect of attracting foreign investment,” she said.

“There have been cases of the misuse of New Zealand-registered companies, leveraging off the good reputation that the New Zealand corporate regulatory regime enjoys internationally.”

McDonald said the Companies and Limited Partnership Bill, awaiting its third reading in Parliament, would give regulators more teeth to investigate suspect companies. The Bill would also require all New Zealand-registered companies to reveal their ultimate owners and have a local director who would be required to disclose their date and place of birth.

“The Bill provides the New Zealand corporate registries system with effective tools to maintain its integrity and deal with those who seek to take advantage of it,” she said.

The forum, a gathering of company registries from 41 countries, finishes on Friday.

McDonald has previously served as general manager of the Insolvency and Trustee Service and has worked as a deputy secretary in the ministries of health, justice and defence.

During his 24-year tenure, her predecessor Harris oversaw the transition of the Companies Office online, a process that began in 1996, and the implementation of the Personal Properties Securities Register in 2002.

McDonald also became the Official Assignee and the Commissioner of Patents, Trademarks, Designs and Plant Variety Types.

Source: Fairfax NZ News. Story by Matt Nippert. Published 12/03/13

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8415283/New-defender-of-NZ-business-reputation

Moves to tighten laws on shell companies

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Legislation has been tightened to tackle the proliferation of dodgy shell companies registered by fake overseas entities. Commerce Minister Craig Foss said changes proposed by a select committee included requiring all New Zealand registered companies to have a director who lives in New Zealand or who lives in and is director of a company in a country with which New Zealand has reciprocal enforcement arrangements.

Source: The Dominion Post 12 December 2012, p. A2.

Related stories:

NZ shell companies in bribery inquiry – Co. director investigated by NEU

https://www.spcs.org.nz/2010/nz-shell-companies-in-bribery-inquiry-company-director-investigated-by-neu/

https://www.spcs.org.nz/tag/shell-companies/

Money laundering, shell companies, criminal connections and porn

https://www.spcs.org.nz/2010/money-laundering-shell-companies-criminal-connections-and-porn/

South Pacific a corruption and money laundering paradise

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Deregistered shell companies drift across the South Pacific without oversight, but crucial to corruption and money laundering. Authorities in Europe are looking for nearly $700 million stashed in shell companies once registered in New Zealand and Vanuatu, and the $600,000 armoured car bought by a London-based Nigerian politician using a shell company operating out of Niue.

The latest case involves one time Ireland rich-lister Sean Quinn. After Ireland’s financial meltdown, he found himself owing billions to the former Anglo Irish Bank.

But the Irish media alleges he managed to put millions beyond its reach, and that private investigators have trawled company registers in Australia and New Zealand looking at links with Vanuatu.

Much of the missing money came out of the Ukraine and Russia, where dozens of once New Zealand-registered shell companies operate despite being struck off by the Companies Office.

The way the companies lingered on was a factor in New Zealand being struck off a European Union banking “white list” of trusted jurisdictions, and the London based non-profit Global Witness, says our shells are “a critical link in the corruption supply chain”.

Another entity emerged after the conviction this year of former governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta State, James Ibori. Sentenced to 13 years’ jail for stealing more than $310m from the Government, mansions in England and South Africa were seized, along with a fleet of armoured Range Rovers and Bentleys.

One of the problems in searching the Pacific was that after pressure from New Zealand, Niue closed its register in 2006 and gave the rights to control a tax haven there for 20 years to Mossack Fonseca and Co of Panama City

Source: Story by Michael Field. Fairfax NZ News. 22 July 2012.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7324020/South-Pacific-a-money-laundering-paradise

Albany-based shell companies key to NZ$1.5 billion money-laundering scandal

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New Zealand companies with a vacant driveway in Auckland’s Albany as a registered address have been key players in a US$1.2 billion (NZ$1.5b) money laundering scandal in central Asia that helped bring down a government and sparked deadly riots.

A report by London based non-profit NGO Global Witness [www.globalwitness.org] offers more embarrassing revelations over company formations that in May saw New Zealand struck off a prestigious European Union banking “white list” because of weak money laundering and terrorism financing rules.

The report also outed several recurring director/shareholder names on the New Zealand’s Companies Office register that are likely to be low-paid fronts for unknown people who control the shell companies.

For more see:

NZ shell companies in Kyrgyz corruption.

Story by Michael Field. Fairfax NZ News. Published 02/07/12

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7205840/NZ-shell-companies-in-Kyrgyz-corruption

 

 

NZ companies linked to money laundering

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Criminals are using shell companies set up under New Zealand’s lax company laws to launder money.

Companies created by an Auckland firm operating out of Queen St have been linked to Russian crime, a Mexican drug cartel and Romanian extortion.

A 16-month Fairfax Media investigation has also tied companies created by Geoffrey Taylor and his sons Ian and Michael, who work out of 363 Queen St, to a company that smuggled arms out of North Korea.

The government admits there is a problem but says it has had other priorities.

Sunday Star Times. 29 May 2011.

For full article “NZ firms linked to money launderng” by Michael Field, see:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5069771/NZ-firms-linked-to-money-laundering

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