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The suppression of the names of two people accused of fraud in the NZ First Foundation donation scandal will be considered in an urgent court hearing next week.
Stuff and RNZ this morning sought to challenge the suppression orders on public interest grounds before the election.
Stuff and RNZ understand that the SFO’s attorneys had requested an urgent hearing on the name suppression issue earlier this week. The date was confirmed after Stuff and RNZ presented their challenge this morning.
On Tuesday, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said it had brought charges of “obtaining by deception” against two people in connection with its investigation into the NZ First Foundation, an investigation started by Stuff and the RNZ reports.
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* SFO will complete NZ First Foundation investigation prior to election
* It is time to end the secrecy about political donations.
Ryan Anderson / Stuff
NZ First leader Winston Peters spoke at the Cordis Hotel in Auckland on Tuesday about the SFO investigation.
The SFO did not mention the two accused persons and both have provisional name deletion, but the investigators said, in a statement, that “neither of the accused is a minister, acting deputy or candidate in the next election (or a member of his staff), or a current member of the New Zealand Primera party ”.
The order was expected to last until the two defendants appeared in North Shore District Court on October 29, after the October 17 general election, and possibly after the resulting coalition negotiations concluded.
In seeking to defy the order, Stuff and RNZ defended the need to examine any connection between the two accused persons and New Zealand Party One, and whether the party’s claims about the SFO were credible.
“The New Zealand voting public has a legitimate interest in knowing the defendants’ connections, if any, with the New Zealand First Party and, in particular, if the New Zealand First Party press release, which is very critical of the SFO, it is fair and accurate, ” Stuff and RNZ testified in a memorandum to the court.
NZ First leader Winston Peter claimed Tuesday that his party had been “exonerated” over the outcome of the investigation, and attacked the SFO for a “terrible intrusion” in the elections.
Peters alleged that the OFS had abused its legal powers and that it “has not been reasonable.” He promised to instruct the lawyers to take the OFS to court and request a statement that it had abused its authority.
The party had fought the SFO a week earlier in court over the statement the office intended to issue on the charges, a legal action unknown to the public as of Tuesday night.
Peters claimed responsibility Tuesday for challenging the OFS in court over the statement.
Court documents show that NZ First tried to prevent the OFS from revealing that it had pressed charges until a new government was formed after the elections.
NZ First’s attorney, Fletcher Pilditch, told the court that any announcement would damage the party’s prospects in the election, and said the party claimed that the SFO had rushed its investigation to remove it before the election.
