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Simon Carl Nikoloff, left, and Gerard Anthony Gallagher leave court after an earlier appearance.
Two former Canterbury reconstruction agency employees facing corruption charges have been named after a suppression order expired months after they were indicted.
Simon Carl Nikoloff and Gerard Anthony Gallagher appeared in Christchurch Superior Court on Friday.
The charges stem from deals they were involved in as employees of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera), the government agency created to oversee rebuilding in the region.
Nikoloff and Gallagher face multiple charges of corrupt use of official information presented by the Serious Fraud Office. They have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to go to trial next year.
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OFS prosecutor Ann Toohey confirmed that an earlier order to suppress the names of the two defendants had expired.
The couple resigned their positions with Cera’s successor, Ōtākaro, in April 2017, just before the launch of a high-level investigation that found serious misconduct. Her job at Cera was to look for investors willing to commit to development in the battered city.
The accusations against Nikoloff and Gallagher were first raised in a Stuff investigation in 2017. The investigation prompted an investigation by the State Services Commission (SSC) that led to an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
The men first appeared on SFO charges in Christchurch District Court last year and were granted provisional name suppression. They have pleaded not guilty and have chosen a jury trial.
A 2017 SSC investigation by Michael Heron QC found that Gallagher and Nikoloff had tried to insert their private company into real estate deals in the hopes of winning personal search fees and project management fees. They did not disclose their activity to Cera or, in one case, to an owner.
The investigation said that Gallagher and Nikoloff had used their company Property and Investment Management Ltd (PIML) to try to enter into a business deal on the Youth Hostel Association building on Manchester St in the city center.
“They did not reveal their personal interest to the parties involved in the potential transaction or to their employer. This created a clear conflict of interest that they were aware of and should have informed Cera, however they did not do so, ”said State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes at the time.
The private business activities of Gallagher and Nikoloff while they were employees of Ōtākaro, who assumed some functions of Cera, were investigated by then-CEO Albert Brantley.
The investigation showed that the two appeared to have behaved similarly to their conduct at Cera, Hughes said.
In a joint statement at the time, Gallagher and Nikoloff said they had relied on the people around them to give them the necessary advice “in the sense that we reveal our activities and trust them to guide us.”
“We maintain that Cera’s legal team, leadership, and Cera’s external legal team were aware of what we were doing with our outside business interests. Coming from business experience, we have pursued various business interests since before joining Cera and these interests were fully disclosed to Cera.
“We were expected to present to investors, including our own networks, the private property opportunities in the city and we did. We value our networks and always act appropriately and professionally.”
Nikoloff and Gallagher were held on bond until their next court appearance in October.
