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Winston Peters stood silent in front of a room full of cameras yesterday, waiting for a signal from one of his MPs that the clock had struck five in the afternoon.
The NZ First leader had tried to delay or stop this moment, when the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) would finally declare an outcome in its investigation into the NZ First Foundation, accusing two people of “obtaining by deception”: fraud.
Peters had taken the OFS to court last week, unbeknownst to the public, seeking to keep the OFS from announcing that it had pressed charges, ideally until after the elections and the formation of a new government.
His gag attempt failed.
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Judge Matthew Palmer had said that NZ First did not have a “particularly strong” case and that “the public interest in transparency outweighs the drawbacks of the announcement to NZ First.”
The charges come at a time when Peters, who first entered Parliament 42 years ago, is looking into electoral oblivion.
Ryan Anderson / Stuff
NZ First leader Winston Peters speaks to the media after two people were indicted in a Serious Fraud Office investigation against the NZ First Foundation.
His party is sick and the election is underway. Voting abroad begins today and early voting begins Saturday.
The latest public poll had Peters’s party at 1 percent, below or equal to parties that have never had a nose for power, and other polls haven’t been much kinder, even at Northland headquarters, where the Peters’s apparent heir, Shane Jones, has been pumping cash from the Provincial Growth Fund.
Once the clock struck 5 p.m., a short statement from the OFS was released, saying the charges were filed on September 23 and making it clear that none of the people were cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, candidates or their current employees, or party members. There would be no further comment from the investigators.
Peters broke loose, claiming his party was “exonerated” before attacking the SFO for its “terrible intrusion” in the elections.
“The timing of your decision to press charges against the foundation constitutes an error in judgment at the level of James Comey,” Peter said, referring to the decision of then-US FBI Director James Comey to reopen an investigation into the emails from Hilary Clinton shortly before 2016. United States presidential elections.
“You spend decades building a political reputation and someone tries to crush it in a matter of seconds.”
The NZ First Foundation had been under investigation since February, after both Stuff Y RNZ published reports on the apparent use of the foundation as a political fund for the party, receiving donations and later paying expenses outside the scrutiny of the Electoral Commission.
The Commission’s preliminary look at the case concluded that the donations should have been transmitted to the party proper and declared. He referred the matter to the police who referred it to the OFS.
Peters was adamant in his brief press conference that the party and the foundation were different entities.
He declined to discuss whether he knew the defendants or whether they were former party members, saying it would be inappropriate as the matter was before the courts.
“The foundation is a completely separate entity from the NZ First party, but that distinction will be lost to some and sadly, it will be ignored on purpose by others,” Peters said Tuesday.
“It’s a relief after months of this cloud hanging over the party that we have been completely cleared.”
Peters said that he had now instructed the lawyers to take the SFO to court and request a statement that it had abused its legal powers.
Stuff NZ First Foundation trustees Brian Henry and Doug Woolerton were contacted on Tuesday, both declining to comment on the SFO investigation.
