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The Serious Fraud Office has charged two people in the NZ First Foundation donations scandal, but Winston Peters says his party has been “exonerated.”
The two people were charged with “obtaining by deception” on Sept. 23 in the election financing case, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said in a statement Tuesday.
The SFO did not name the defendants, but said neither were cabinet ministers, sitting deputies, candidates or staff members in the next election, nor current members of the NZ First party.
Ryan Anderson / Stuff
NZ First leader Winston Peters says he has been the subject of a witch hunt.
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NZ First leader Peters attacked the SFO when it responded to the charges, saying that it had “exonerated the NZ First party of any breach of electoral law.”
“It is a relief after months of this cloud hanging over the party that we have been completely cleared,” he said.
It did not say whether the accused had previously been members.
Peters said he had taken the SFO to court for the statement he intended to release on the charges he filed.
“The timing of his decision to press charges against the foundation constitutes an error of 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.
A spokesperson for the SFO said that NZ First initiated a lawsuit against the office to prevent it from issuing a press release on September 23.
RICKY WILSON / Stuff
Peters has accused the OFS of abusing its legal powers.
The court ruled in favor of the SFO, the spokesman said, and issued a statement on Tuesday when the deadline to appeal the decision expired.
The statement was amended after the judicial challenge, due to the upcoming elections, “to reflect the categories of people who were not charged,” he said.
Peters said that he had now instructed the lawyers to take the SFO to court and seek a statement that it had abused its legal powers, he said.
He said he could not comment further because the matter was now in court.
The foundation has been under investigation since February, after both Stuff Y RNZ published reports on the foundation’s activities.
The foundation appeared to be accepting donations and paying expenses outside the Election Commission’s scrutiny, for the NZ First party.
The Electoral Commission, in February, referred the matter of the NZ First Foundation donations to the police after determining that “the donations were not properly transmitted to the Party and were not disclosed as required by the 1993 Election Law.”
The police then referred the matter to the OFS.
Peters has said that the SFO would not find any wrongdoing, and NZ First was acting as other political parties do.
He routinely distanced himself from the foundation, saying he had made sure it was legal but was not involved beyond that.
“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.
He had previously said that he asked the party to review donation practices in light of the Electoral Commission’s findings.
The 2020 elections will be held on October 17. Voting abroad begins Wednesday and early voting begins Saturday.
