SOME TRIBES LOST ALL THEIR MONEY WHILE OTHERS JUST ABOUT? & IN BETWEEN WE

HAVE A FEW MAORI WHO SEE THE CHANCE OF MAKING A QUICK BUCK

TRUSTS AND MAORI SETTLEMENTS INVESTMENT FUNDS

TURNING BAD BY THE VERY PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE HELPING THEIR IWI.

MANY FRAUD CASES ALSO ARISE & SAD TO SEE SOME KEEP ON

BEING REPEATED

Here is a prime example of Trustees & others who do not follow Trust orders & trust practices. A fact with many

Maori Trusts that are set up with ill qualified Trustees or those who feel

they can dip into the till whenever

2005 -2023

2005: A former Maori MP was jailed after a jury in NZ found her guilty of defrauding a children's charity to pay for a stomach-stapling operation.A jury in Auckland High Court found former legislator Donna Awatere Huata and her husband Wi Huata guilty on four joint charges of fraud and on one joint charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.The couple were accused of taking more than $NZ90,000 ($A83,000) of taxpayer's money from a government-funded foundation for personal use.The Pipi Foundation, set up by Awatere Huata in 1999 to promote literacy and social skills among underprivileged Maori children, received $NZ840,000 ($A780,000) in government grants over three years.

2005 Maria Tait, a 54 year-old honorary treasurer for a Runanga was charged with 334 counts of document fraud. In a 2½ year period she wrote out 270 cheques amounting to some $186,000 which she either cashed for herself or deposited into her own back account. Almost all the cheques were made out to cash but on the cheque stub the names of legitimate companies were entered. Tait denied any dishonesty and claim the money was payment for work she had done, although the Runanga said there was never any authorisation for Tait to be paid for the volunteer position she filled.Tait held a loyalty card issued by a local casino and its records disclosed she had a turnover of $1.6 million, including up to $54,000 on one day.Tait, who had previously been recognised for introducing strict financial governance at the Runanga, was convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment

2022 Te Puni Kokiri got sucked employing John Davy - including the salary advance and airfares - was $82,000.John Davy, the man hired as chief executive of the Maori Television Service (MTS) and fired six weeks later for fraud, was jailed for eight months today.Judge Phil Moran referred to Davy as a "conman" who indulged in a web of deceit woven to obtain a job he was not qualified to do & he lied about his qualifications on the resume he supplied with his application to work for MTS. Why did they not hire a Maori??? or Kiwi---- totally incompetent lot.

2011:Te Raumahara Elizabeth Pene, a 52 year-old employee at Te Puia in Rotorua (aka the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute) was today sentenced to two years and nine month imprisonment for stealing more than $324,000 of admission money paid to her by members of the public.The offending occurred over a 2½ year period in full view of video surveillance cameras and at times Pene was stealing more than $1,000 a day. When questioned by police, she handed over nearly $4500, money she had stolen over the previous three days.Before sentencing, Pene offered reparation of $50 per week, but the Judge said at that rate it would take her 130 years to pay back the money she had stolen. A second ticket seller, 55 year-old Waikare Bernadette Te Moana was sentenced in June 2012 for stealing $157,000 worth of admission money.

2012 South Auckland man Saul Roberts pleaded guilty to taking a bribe to withdraw his tribe’s objections to a district plan change.also admitted taking kickbacks while working as an asset manager for a Maori health trust. 2012 Roberts set up the kickback scheme with co-accused Atish Narayan to give Narayan contracts to supply and maintain cars for Te Roopu Taurima O Manukau Trust, which provides health care for people with intellectual disabilities. In October Narayan was sentenced to 6 months’ home detention and ordered to pay $14,000 in reparation. The other charge dates back to 2009 when Roberts was a trustee and employee of Te Kawerau Iwi Tribal Authority and received a secret payment of $45,000 in return for withdrawing public submissions he had lodged on behalf of the tribe opposing a plan change

Opepe Farm Trust .2009-2010: James Maniapoto, Jim Biddle, Owen Purcell, Putiputi Biel, Emily Rameka were dismissed as trustees. Mussel Farm Venture investment [ breach of the Trust order ] the “Mangamawhitiwhiti transaction” or Te Whenua Venture Holdings Limited [ unsecured loan ] ; the purchase of the Tauhara North property with the Hikuwai Hapu Lands Trust [ conflict of interest ]. WVHL borrowed $10 million from Westpac Bank and Dorchester Finance & is a prime example of the above. The loans were guaranteed in part by both the Trust and the majority trustees personally. The High Court ruled that the majority trustees and the Trust itself were liable for a debt of over $4.5 million. They also breached the Trust order & had conflicts of interest and against a background of previous failed business ventures? This Trust had a $4 million loan paying back $300,000 in interest p.a, but the Trusts annual income from Tauhara North was only approximately $17,000. Judge Harvey was right in removing the Trustees for their bad financial position & not producing accounts and the High Court rehearing defended Judge Harvey's well formed decision which was very palin to read [ Read the Court report ] It was Temuera Hall vs Opepe Trust that brought this to light [ Read the Court report ]

2011 August Arapeta Hamilton, the 53 year-old CEO of Kaikohe-based Ngapuhi Iwi Social Services Limited (NISS) was today sentenced to eight months' home detention and ordered to pay $20,000 reparation after earlier being convicted of defrauding the company of $147,000 over a two year period. NISS was established by a Maori charitable Trust in 1997 to provide social services to disadvantaged children in the Far North and it received $1 million annually in Government funding. Hamilton had overall responsibility for the company and was given complete autonomy to run the business including signing authority for two NISS bank accounts Hamilton misused his position to write out 40 NISS cheques worth $86,588 to pay the mortgage on a house he owned, advanced himself $20,000 in wages, diverted $12,885 to Southside Company Ltd, a South Auckland nightclub that he wholly owned, and wrote a further 80 cheques out to the value of $28,045 to other companies he controlled.

2012 Two clerks who had been employed for almost four years by Environment Canterbury (the Canterbury Regional Council) have pleaded guilty to stealing $82,000 in cash from their employer.For more than 20 months Catherine Anne Ihaka, age 56, and Amelia Taima Temo, age 24, repeatedly stole money that the public used as payment for the purchase of bus tickets. The pair originally faced 194 criminal charges but the prosecutor reduced this to a representative three charges to cover all the offending.Temo was sentenced to six months home detention and to ordered to pay reparation of $15,000. Ihaka was sentenced to six months community detention, 150 hours community work, and a reparation payment of $7500. further to $7250 she had put aside as a reparation payment prior to sentencing.

2012 Te Rau Aroha Trust the Maori Trust established to offer Tangi insurance and improve health outcomes for older Maori and Pasifika people is struggling as the Maori is not passing away as they had hoped. Tapihana Shelford said the kaupapa for Te Rau Aroha is to enable older Maori and Pasifika men and women to live and die with dignity. But Westpac-owned fund manager BT Funds Management (NZ) invested KiwiSaver money then invested $13.2m of its own funds buying the bonds issued by this insurance scheme. By Sept 2012 the scheme had failed and bonds now became useless. The founder of the insurance scheme has complained to the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) [Simon Power ] and asked it to investigate the purchase by BT and the way it, and Westpac, disclosed the transaction to investors. BT, denies the deal amounted to a KiwiSaver bailout. If thats not something to think about what about our Sealords?

MAY 2012: Tauranga businesswoman Rae Beverly Adlam, 65 was ordered to pay back $280,000 to Maori trusts after pleading guilty to a number of fraud charges in the Tauranga District Court. Adlam faced a total of 32 charges of evading the assessment or payment of tax and 12 counts of knowingly providing false information. She had previously pleaded guilty to 25 of the charges, before pleading guilty to the remaining charges today. Adlam, who was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2008, was formerly a director of the Kaupapa Maori division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She was also a chairwoman of the Tuwharetoa Kawerau Trust, has held a range of leadership roles in several business, state and community organisations and was listed as a director of Ngati Tuwharetoa Geothermal Assets, which will provide the steam and geothermal fluids needed to operate the new 25mW Kawerau geothermal power plant. She is also listed as a director and shareholder of Ngati Tuwharetoa Custodian Trustee Company Limited, was a member of the Qualifications Authority and the former Bay of Plenty Area Health Board, as well as being a trustee of the New Zealand Telethon Trust. She has held roles with Lottery Bay of Plenty/Gisborne Community Development Committee, Bay of Plenty Electricity, Trustbank Bay of Plenty and the New Zealand Forestry Corporation.She won Waiariki Young Maori Woman of the Year, Businesswoman of the Year and won two broadcasting awards. The courts are determining how much each trust will get from the $280,000 reparation.

2012: Jocelyn Iwa Ngareta Renata, a 50 year-old Finance Officer employed by the Hoani Waititi Marae in Glen Eden has been sentenced in Auckland for stealing $331,626 from her employer.Renata had worked for the marae, a registered charitable trust, for over 17 years. When caught she said all the money had been spent on gambling.An examination of her account at a local casino revealed more than $600,000 had passed through it. She used her employer’s credit card to obtain $42,939 in cash advances at the casino and cashed cheques worth $18,149 from the Trust’s account, as well as overpaying wages to herself, and family members. She also pocketed nearly $3,000 paid to her by parents using the marae’s childcare facilities.The marae employed a forensic accountant and lawyer at considerable expense to learn the extent of Renata's offending and the trust survived only by arranging a bank overdraft. In sentencing Renata to two years and three months imprisonment, the judge said her offending had caused the trust extreme embarrassment and put its reputation as a trusted recipient of public funds at risk.  A 20-minute PVL Integrity Test could have identified Renata’s gambling addiction

2012: Teokotai Mokotupu, a 32 year-old Logisitics Manager who had worked for Moffett Orchards in Hastings since she was 17 years old was today sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for stealing $170,000 worth of apples, and apple packaging, from her employer.
Mokotupu would sell apples to customers without the company's knowledge and keep the money for herself. The offending, which was said to have begun in January 2010, was only discovered by chance when one of the company’s regular clients complained they had received the wrong order. Mokotupu’s lawyer said she was "adamant'' she wanted to pay the money back, but the Judge said that at $50 a week that would take at least 70 years.

July 2014: Te Hemoata Dawn Pomana, 59, the former CEO of Ngai Tamanuhiri Whanui Judge Tony Adeane found her guilty of having used a trust credit card to make 93 separate cash withdrawals totalling $15,440, between December 26, 2010 and September 15, 2011. She was remanded further on bail for sentence on October 13, 2014.December 26, 2010, the Trust accounts clerk detected anomolies in January the following year. He bypassed Pomana to report it to the then trust chairman Nga Raihania, who instructed her to stop. But she continued regardless after being told to tai hoa. 

Sept 2015: The head of a panel which selects Auckland Council's Maori advisers has a conviction for fraud. Tame Te Rangi has hit the headlines for threatening to take legal action against councillors unless they voted in favour of spending ratepayers' money on a court challenge he is involved in. Councillors were further angered this week to find out that Te Rangi was sentenced to five months' jail in the early 1990s for stealing $40,000 from a Ngati Whatua trust. "We were never told anything about his record," Councillor Mike Lee said. Te Rangi stepped down from his job with Maori broadcasting agency Te Mangai Paho in March 2003 after it emerged his employer had not been aware of his conviction. A later review found that Te Rangi had been paid for rugby commentaries on Maori Sportscasting International while approving grants to the sports broadcaster as part of his role at Te Mangai Paho.

AUGUST 2015 Ngati Ranginui's Treaty settlement, which came in 2012 after almost 20 years of negotiations. The Ngati Ruahine hapu, associated with the Waimapu Marae, received cash and land worth about $2 million.. Judge Clark ordered that the Harrisons, be removed as trustees and as signatories of the bank accounts, and ordered they pay back $20,670 to the marae.Carlo and Janice Harrison misappropriated at least $20,000 from bank accounts belonging to the Waimapu Marae in Tauranga. The couple admitted spending the money, meant for marae renovations, at SkyCity Casino in Auckland, KFC, PIZZAS, Riverside Casino in Hamilton and bars around Tauranga.The bank accounts involved had about $109,000 in them, but most of that is gone so as you see the wrong trustees are in power & the beneficiaries lose out.

AUGUST 2015: Te Aupouri Maori Trust Board closed its Kaitaia headquarters at short notice on August 25 2015 and quit a raft of social services after chairman Raymond Subritzky said it was facing "challenging financial circumstances".Following appeals from Mr Subritzky and Te Aupouri's new runanga (tribal council), Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell launched a ministerial investigation into the trust's affairs.Figures cited for the size of the trust board's debt ranged from Mr Flavell's estimate at the time of "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to an insider's estimate of about $2 million. Bad decisions it seems yet another case of using voting trustees on boards who have little experience where money isn't theres??? These frausters once convicted are never made to pay back money stolen as normally it is already blown? Hence Trusts and in particular beneficiaries lose.

2016 November: Auckland International Airport accounts clerk Teremoana Kimiangatau, 54, jailed for three years two months for a $1.8 million fraud. She transferred money from the company’s accounts to her own.

2016 : Bronwyn Koroheke, lost her job as chief financial officer at Te Wananga o Aotearoa because she was duped by offshore fraudsters in a "whaling" scam, which targets an organisation's top executives. The email landed in her inbox at 12.54pm on Thursday, November 19 last year. It seemed to come from the wananga's chief executive, Jim Mather, who had joined in 2013 after serving as chief executive of Maori Television."There was nothing to suggest it was anything different than it coming directly from Jim," Koroheke says but never bothered to even make a phone call to check. "Some of the scammers change a letter or a dot, there was no change. For all intents and purposes it was an internal email or so she thought. It even had his picture."The email asked that $US79,000 ($122,953) be transferred immediately to a bank account in Hong Kong which should have opened up red lights but no?. Koroheke says she wrote back asking for an invoice. so the sum never bothered her. One was provided, saying the money was for the purchase of "St Paul's College Sports Health & Fitness Centre and adjacent land renovation, 69 Bonham Road, Hong Kong" so she paid it without checking?????Well she deserved to be booted.

OCTOBER 2017-May 2018: Stephen Henare, 60, and Margaret Dixon, 59, face charges of theft by person in special relationship in relation to their roles as trustees for the Parengarenga 3G Trust. Parengarenga 3G is a 511.83 hectare forestry block of Maori land located in the Taitokerau District in the Far North of New Zealand.  The land and its assets are governed by the P3G Trust. There are hundreds of beneficial owners of the land. Henare appeared in the Auckland District Court on Thursday and has been remanded on bail. Dixon failed to appear. Parengarenga 3G is a 511.83ha forestry block of Maori land located in the Tai Tokerau district in the Far North. It is managed by the Parengarenga 3G Trust. In June 2012, 7 were appointed as trustees, in place of the Maori Trustee. There are hundreds of beneficial owners of the land. In August 2012 approx $1.1 million, intended primarily for the management of the land and the forest for the beneficial owners, was transferred from the Maori Trustee to the Parengarenga 3G Trust bank accounts.  A further $54,480 was also obtained by the trust from the sale of carbon credits.By January 2014 there was only $13.41 left of the funds.As if they could get away with it this is sad.Total greed.Henare, 60, faces six charges of theft by person in special relationship in relation to his role as a trustee.He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is next due to appear in the Auckland District Court on May 23.Dixon will be sentenced on July 6 2018.As if noone would check eventually???? - Stuff

2017 Lynette Anne Collins-Watson, 59, of Dunedin, received 10 months’ home detention after embezzling more than $114,000 from a non-profit Maori trust where she was chief executive. She disguised money being paid into her account as having been paid to Te Wananga o Aotearoa.Judge Phillips found her guilty of one charge of theft of $27,935 by a person in a special relationship and another of $86,496. He described her as “a calculating and deceiving woman”.

2017 Nikau Hohaia, 34, administrator of a small Opunake school, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Tamarongo, jailed for one year 10 months after taking $100,000 over three years by cashing school cheques or using its credit card on shopping trips.Hohaia was employed as an administrator but four months into her job began writing cheques which she cashed or banked in her own account.

2013: Wellington Tenths Trust, its chairman Sir Ngatata Love, and his partner and former ministerial adviser Lorraine Skiffington were being investigated in April 2013. By June 2013, publicity surrounding the case was silenced, with suppression orders.Not only could it not be reported that Love and Skiffington were facing a raft of charges in relation to a series of transactions, no mention could be made of the role of Sir Ngatata's son, Matene Love, a former Junior All Black, accused of accepting a secret commission. Matene Love was paid in return for an agreement that the Tenths effectively give Redwood a right of first refusal over the land in Pipitea St.He pleaded guilty and served home detention, but the matter remained secret

But it all started using shady accountants. David Ingram Rowley and Barrie David Skinner, who were in the High Court. During the trial the pair's lawyer put it to Sir Ngatata Love's partner that a payment through her company into their personal account was a secret commission, designed to be concealed from the Wellington Tenths Trust. She was appearing as a witness in the tax fraud trial of two Wellington accountants, Barrie James Skinner and David Ingram Rowley, operated as Tax Planning Services (TPS).As a result of the trial, the pair were handed the longest ever jail terms for tax fraud in New Zealand history, 8 and a half and 8 years respectively. Ms Skiffington received consultancy fees around $750,000 a year, then 3% of the $50 million Pipitea project, amounting to a figure of $1.5 million. Ms Skiffington billed council $350 an hour; and also tried to charge Sir Peter Jackson a “consultancy fee” of $750,000 to for a Lord of the Rings museum planned for Shelly Bay land. Peter Jackson didn't need a broker to sell land to him & certainly not what Skiffington wanted? Ngatata Love stepped down from his position over it all while an investigation was undertaken into a sum of $1.02 million deposited into an account with his partner Lorraine Skiffington. According to the judgment in 2007, a company jointly owned by Ms Skiffington, she was paid $1.4m by two Auckland property developers seeking involvement in Tenths Trust developments but of course she would say its not a bribe but we know better? Payments were forwarded to entities controlled by Skinner and Rowley, with $1.02m directed into a personal account Ms Skiffington held with Sir Ngatata Love. Ms Skiffington was obsessed by greed it seems.

Sir Ngatata Love offered to sell Wellington railway station to a would-be con man casino developer Lozois Michaels the Aussie Greek fraudster and his partner Lorraine Skiffington sought a $35 million consultancy deal on the same development.Ms Skiffington offered to provide “strategic project management services . . . to ensure the successful progress of this development”, and also sought a “good faith” payment of $2.5m from Loizos Michaels a Greek, who was fronting the development group. She wanted another $8 million for “air rights” above Wellington Railway Station??? total greed. Michaels was jailed for fraud & even Jono Lomu lost money. Lozois Michaels, the former proprietor of Plato's Greek Taverna on Ponsonby Road, is charged with 32 counts of obtaining by deception and causing loss by deception.Michaels was accused by the Serious Fraud Office of purporting to be an international casino operator and inducing people to invest $1.1 million in his sham business. Another of Michael's schemes he faced charges over is the collection of $353,025 from investors to purchase a motel in Rotorua. After being charged Michaels fled to Australia, before being arrested by local police and extradited back to New Zealand. This con artist is to be deported to Australia May 2018 after being jailed 8 yrs for fraud in NZ. Hopefully the last we will see of this conman.

Professor Sir Ngatata Love came from an excellent family of Ralph and Flora Love and his father gave a lot to support to Maori & Pipitea. Its a shame to see his son going against the ethics of what his father gave to Maori. Ralph senior was an anent supporter of Ngati Poneke.

2017: The heavily mortgaged $1.75m home shared by convicted fraudster Sir Ngatata Love and his former partner Lorraine Skiffington sold after a sale order sought by police was upheld.Police are now able to sell the house, in Plimmerton, under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act. Love, 80, former head of the Maori landowning Wellington Tenths Trust, served 1 year of a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for obtaining by deception & must keep away from Wellington Tenths. His appeal against conviction and sentence was dismissed in June. The High Court imposed a freezing order on assets belonging to Lorraine Skiffington July 2017, the former partner of disgraced Māori leader, Sir Ngatata Love.Skiffington had interests in up to 40 properties, jointly with her former domestic partner known only as "Mr Jones", which they required together over a "lengthy period" of stealing off Maori shareholders. Lorraine Skiffington, the lawyer who lived with Love for a number of years, escaped facing trial on fraud charges because her illness was terminal and died in 2017 Sept aged 59 of cancer.Love, as chairman of the Wellington Tenths, not only failed to tell his trustees of the payment, or his partner's involvement, but he took steps to try to keep the agreement secret.And it may have stayed secret, ironically, if the first fraud had not been followed by a second one – the use of Skinner and Rowley in a bid to avoid paying tax. They probably would have got away with it all if they used a legit accountant company but as we know many accountants and even lawyers have been caught for fraud of late.

The author was well acquainted with both his parents Ralph Sr, & Flora and the elder Ralph Love was a respected Rangatira in the Wellington circles and Pipitea Ngati Poneke.He Ngatata served less than a year in jail out in Oct 2017. What he and she did was disgraceful aspired by share greed & sad for the beneficiaries who had faith in his integrity only to be grinded into the dust by both of them..

2014:Caroline Marama Watene, a 36 year-old who worked for the Maori tertiary institution, Te Wananga O Aotearoa, was today sentenced in the Hamilton District Court for CV fraud.Watene was employed in July 2006 as a Customer Service Representative.  At that time she falsely claimed to have a diploma in Te Reo Maori from the University of Waikato. Then, after 12 months, Watene “revealed” that she had cancer.  She gave her employer a letter – which she had forged - purporting to be from the Waikato Health Board in support of her claim, and went as far as shaving her head to “confirm” the symptoms generally associated with cancer treatment.   She used up her sick leave and annual leave, and her employer then granted her Compassionate Leave of 93 days, worth more than $12,000.  The Court was subsequently told that she had simply had enough of work and couldn’t be bothered with the daily grind.  Notwithstanding, Watene continued to work for the Wananga until July 2011 when she applied for an internal promotion as an Internet Administrator.  However a prerequisite was a degree in business which she did not have, so she submitted a fake teaching degree from the University of Auckland, and was appointed to the position.  For the second time, the Wananga accepted her claim to have a qualification without verifying it.  In 2012 Watene became pregnant and claimed that because her cancer treatment may pose a risk to her unborn child, she had booked to have a mastectomy.  A colleague went to visit her in hospital and discovered that not only was Watene not there but there was no record of her ever being in the hospital.Watene was sentenced to nine months' home detention on two representative charges of using a document for pecuniary advantage and forgery, and ordered to repay her employer the $12,820.88 paid to her as Compassionate Leave.

2013 SEALORDS SO CALLED INVESTMENT FOR IWI: Fun and games with Sealords and here we have none other than Labour MP Shane Jones, who was once Sealord's chairman, jumping up and down in July 2013 as Sealord seems to be in some sort of quagmire on disclosing its financials. Sound familier will it is with many organisations now and accountants unwilling to really check the nitty grity of it all. And of course the lifeline to Iwi have stopped at the moment receiving dividends from quota. One must even wonder where some Iwi is actually putting that fisheries money they receive? The gross profit of Sealords has slowly become eroded as from 2007 after a not so good investment in Argentina but it highlights how those who think they know investment end up in the red by not looking at inflation, monetary fluctuations as well as another countries financial balance & work ethics. For Iwi it could spell disaster as its letting a few deal the cards for the majority in a world economy thats been driven by the rampant banking frenzy of printing money at will. The Sealord Group, 50 per cent owned by iwi as part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement in 1992, is in trouble and has stopped paying the tribes dividends as they felt the brunt by a soaring peso and rampant inflation. Now Sealord's other half owner, Tokyo-based Nippon Suisan Kaisha, otherwise known as Nissui, is trying to get out of Sealords. In 2011 they lent Sealords $69.9m from Nissui. Auckland-based Aotearoa Fisheries (AFL) shareholders have 56 iwi, including Ngapuhi, Ngati Porou, Ngati Kahungunu, Tuhoe, Tainui and Ngai Tahu, as well as Te Ohu Kai Moana Trustee Ltd which controls Sealord's quota rights.

Nippon Suisan Kaisha is second only to Maruha Nichiro in Japan. Nippon Suisan Kaisha (Nissui) is pulling out of Brazilian processor and shrimp and tilapia farmer Netuno International with $87m in losses. Could this be due to soy prices rising, impacting its tilapia business. and its shrimp farms which suffered from whitespot disease. It also sold the assets of its Argentinean fishing subsidiary Pespasa to local Contessi Group it seems & just like Sealords who wants out they need to realize its not easy doing business in these countries unless you can predict the inevitable changes in that country and have an in depth knowledge of the economic and business structure in the country. The problem is many in management believe they can impact in other countries so quixk that they fail without doing their initial homework. In the fiscal 2011 year, Nissui reported Y4.1 billion losses for liquidations of its subsidiaries in Argentina and Indonesia. Business in the fish world can be tough and changeable and now Nippon Suisan Kaisha (Nissui) is reeling from it..

2009 Dion Nukunuku, a 39 year-old Auckland-based Tower Insurance Claims Manager has been sentenced to three years imprisonment for defrauding his employer of $449,555. During the periods 2002 to 2004, and 2007 to 2009, Nukunuku filed 46 false insurance claims using the names of 16 genuine clients, as well as his own name. He approved the bogus claims and wrote company cheques out to himself. T he offending was only discovered after Nukunuku left the company. Nukunuku is a three-time world champion softball player in 1996, 2000 and 2004, and a 2007 softball personality of the year.
Tower Insurance sought reparation, but Nukunuku’s lawyer said his client was addicted to horse race betting, and all the money had been gambled away.

2016

A former trustee of a Far North Māori land trust has admitted to stealing more than $1 million from the trust, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) says. Stephen Henare, 61, pleaded guilty to five counts of ‘Theft by person in special relationship’ and one count of ‘Attempting to pervert the course of justice’. The charges were brought by the SFO. The SFO says that on the fourth day of his High Court trial, Mr Henare changed his plea. Mr Henare was a trustee of the P3G Trust, which managed a 512-hectare commercial forest on Māori land in the Tai Tokerau District. The forest block has more than 400 beneficial owners. Mr Henare and his sister, Margaret Dixon, facilitated the transfer of the trust’s funds into various bank accounts, including personal accounts and family trusts.Last year, Henare's sister Margaret Dixon, 59, admitted three charges of theft by a person in a special relationship at Auckland District Court and was sentenced to 12 months' home detention and ordered to pay $5000 in reparation.

2019 Feb 22nd A former manager which looks after the Waitangi Treaty Grounds has been jailed for stealing $1.2 million to fund his lavish lifestyle of luxury clothing, travel and cosmetic surgery. Wallace Tamamotu Te Ahuru, 31, was sentenced in the Papakura District Court. He pleaded guilty to two charges of obtaining by deception and seven charges of using forged documents. He was jailed for three years and eight months but why no restitution --- Courts are too lenient??? Out in half the time. Amazing how other members in this Trust never checked the books???

2021 April

Māori Party to the Serious Fraud office over the failure to declare nearly $330,000 in donations to the Electoral Commission.Electoral Commission said it had complained to the police over three large donations to the Māori Party from 2020. The donations were not declared until March and April 2021, well outside the 10-day period in which donations of more than $30,000 must be declared to the commission. Those donations were a cumulative $158,000 from former party co-leader John Tamihere, $120,000 from Aotearoa Te Kahu, and $49,000 from the National Urban Māori Authority.It seems they have since paid???

2021 April

Mana Ahuriri Trust trustees of a treaty settlement group raked up fees of $109,000 each a year as the trust went broke and failed to pay rates,IRD and insurance on its only building, a court has heard. A group of beneficiaries of the Mana Ahuriri Trust has applied to the Māori Land Court to have an independent trustee appointed to investigate the activities of the trustees. The trust signed a deed of settlement with the Crown in November 2016, which involved financial and commercial redress of about $19.5 million, and vesting of some properties to seven Napier hapū who are represented by the trust. Trustees were the chairman Piri Prentice and trustees Barry Wilson and Joinella Maihi-Carroll.The open-ended contracts were entered into in November 2016 and entitled each of the contractors to charge up $109,000 a year plus GST for their services.The trust’s assets went from $2.169m to $947,000, and $850,000 of the assets that remained was due to a revaluation of the trust's only asset, a building.Nearly all the trust’s income had been from the Ministry of Justice, with “no evidence from the accounts of any significant revenue streams from any other source to support the expenditure of the trust”. In the six months to June 2018 the trust’s total income was a little over $25,000. Over the same period the contractors were paid $385,000 between them – “That's equivalent to 14 times the revenue the trust generated in that time,” Mahuika [lawyer] said.The trust was “spending the settlement redress before it is even made” and in order to pay its bills the trust had to take out a loan of about $600,000. As per normal will the MLC do due diligence???

2022 Roger Pikia, an influential business leader and former adviser to the Māori King. Pikia is accused of advising Tarit Holdings Ltd to enter into a contract with Ka Ora Ltd, a health food company Pikia is a director and previous shareholder of, to buy shares for $400,000 without disclosing he had agreed to receive shares to the same value as a gift.The Serious Fraud Office further claims he attempted to obstruct or defeat the course of justice by altering minutes of a Tarit Holdings Ltd board meeting. While acting as an agent of Tarit Holdings Ltd, the Serious Fraud Office alleges Pikia corruptly offered to accept or solicited a payment of $150,000 as a reward for lending his support as a board member in favour of buying a Rotorua property.Pikia was the chairman of Te Arawa River Iwi Trust at the time of the alleged offending. It is also alleged he obtained $364,500 from Tarit through timesheets falsely representing his engagement in residual settlement negotiations.

Charging documents show Pikia is accused of advising Tarit Holdings Ltd to enter into a contract with Ka Ora Ltd, a health food company Pikia is a director and previous shareholder of, to buy shares for $400,000 without disclosing he had agreed to receive shares to the same value as a gift.

The Serious Fraud Office further claims he attempted to obstruct or defeat the course of justice by altering minutes of a Tarit Holdings Ltd board meeting.It is also alleged he obtained $364,500 from Tarit through timesheets falsely representing his engagement in residual settlement negotiations. His trial starts in 2024?? SFO: Case: 150247

Māori King’s private secretary has pleaded guilty to six fraud charges – some related to his own gastric bypass surgery. Te Rangihiroa Whakaruru used the health of King Tuheitia as a cover to obtain by deception.Whakaruru has worked for Tuheitia in various roles since 2008. Whakaruru stood in the dock and admitted to the charges which included telling the Serious Fraud Office that he had reimbursed the trust that funds the King’s office for his gastric bypass procedure at Mercy Ascot Hospital in May 2016. He also told Waikato Tainui leader Joanne Parekawhia McLean that $27,650 had been used to pay for medical services and treatments for the king when in fact that money had been used to pay for the defendant.He told a lie saying he used the King's chequebook and told tribal leaders that the hospital's chief executive officer and other medical professionals were involved in the King's treatment.

2023 Former Ngāi Tahu chairman Tā Mark Solomon and his family and friends have lost millions of dollars in a company that is now being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office. Solomon estimated that he and his family and friends had invested about $2 million in Power to Me about 18 months ago.The company was run by his cousin, Alex Tuira, who had helped him make good investment returns in the past. Alex Tuira, and Aroha Awhinanui Tuira, each face 115 charges of obtaining by deception--along with their companies Ngākau Aroha Investments Limited Ltd and Power to Me Aotearoa Tapui Limited Ltd.. They have pleaded not guilty to all charges and are remanded on bail until their next court appearance on July 20. Solomon should have known better......

2023 AUGUST. Alister Thorby was contracted by Capital and Coast District Health Board (the DHB), now known as Te Whatu Ora Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley, between October 2021 and June 2022 for work as the Covid-19 response lead. He was accused of dishonestly obtaining just over $1.4 million of NZ Government funds as boss of a  Covid response team & was arrested at an airport as he was about to embark on a $92,000 holiday with 2 mates? His job was to arrange staffing at Managed Isolation Quarantine (MIQ) facilities but the Crown is now saying Thorby didnt provide $1.4m worth of services he had invoiced the DHB for but had a good time spenind his putea. Thorby, couldn’t help but dip into Govt funds from his Moutoa Māori Wardens, trading as AT Consulting and Logistics Ltd, had the DHB contract & is now facing 12 charges of obtaining by deception. He did well & purchased a house in Foxton, several vehicles - including a motor home – and booked  international travel for himself & mates when he got busted. His case is now pending in Palmerston North as at Aug 2023........ lets wait & see.......

The SFO alleges that that while employed by Te Roopu Awhina Ki Porirua Trust, Iesha Warren misappropriated more than $1 million in funds intended for social support services. Ms Warren faces charges including obtaining by deception, theft, false accounting and using a forged document. She has pleaded not guilty.Her case starts Aug 2023.......SFO: Case:211806

Ngāi Tahu Holdings, Oct 4th 2023 yet another bad venture Ngai Tahu which operates commercial companies on behalf of the South Island iwi, blew its troubled Oha Honey business in the North Island following years of losses. The iwi bought into Masterton premium honey firm Watson & Son in 2015, valuing the business at $92.8 million in its 2016 annual accounts.Ngāi Tahu Holdings acting chief executive Todd Moyle said that due to significant industry challenges, including an oversupply of honey leading to ongoing losses, Ngāi Tahu Holdings had made the difficult decision to wind down its Oha Honey North Island apiary operations and Masterton processing plant, which would result in the loss of 77 jobs. In its 2022 annual report, Ngāi Tahu said it was downsizing Oha Honey to ensure the challenged business remained viable. The business reported a net loss of $30.9m in 2022, a net loss of $7.2m in 2021, an operating loss of $21.6m in 2020, and a net loss of $62.4m in 2019.High flying wrong decisions; partner disputes etc can lead to no wrong????? yet shareholders have no say.

CONCLUSION: What we are seeing in post Treaty Settlements is an influx of the new generation of high flyers and Maori who have been propped on the pedistal running corporations with tribal monies and a lack of real economic guidance in the real world. Non owners on trusts is wrong as Maori owners should have first preference on running their lands and outsiders offered positions only when reliable Maori cannot fill those seats. But as at 2018 this is still not the case and many Judges won't even be swayed by it eg. Judge Harvey Whanganui MLC? Sad to see, commissioners from outside, lack of overseas business experience, all taking over the affairs of a tribe without seeking within. There is a lack of Trust understanding that the MLC [ Maori Land Court ] notes with their brochures given out when trusts are now formed to help Trustees? Kawanatanga is missing because of this lack of experience. Trustees are propped by whanau, a concern for all Maori with little understanding of the workings and responsibilities of a Trust or Board and as we see with tribes all over NZ the few manipulate the many for self gain more than not. Some believe they have an inherent right to use tribal settlements & dip into the till as they want. Maoridom has entered the stage that has bred the word oligarchy. And in amongst this lot we have all the new era knighthoods given out to keep the receivers backing the Government as its a way of saying thank you for the support. The very word Knighthood is now an in thing given to coaches of a football team so the true meaning has taken on a new edge? But as we read between the lines many have never earned what they profess to perceive for others or what our forebearers endured. Today Maori must safeguard their land from the likes of Te Tumu Paeroa so they do not use as collateral to keep their business ideals alive. Some have coerced their way to the top positions & then surrounded themselves with self supporters to consolidate control not only of one business but several as this is the 21st century. We see the same in many countries where it is tribal so NZ is not an isolated case. If anything its copycat. We follow USA and we now have the word CEO indented in our business world & workers are mere expendable pawns. But in saying that how many of these CEOs and Maori business chairmans, directors etc have ever invested their own monies at risk to themselves in their own business & succeeded?? This is the question all Iwi must ask before they lose what little they have left including their lands that multi ownership is slowly swallowing up.

"The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings".

But not all is Bad. There have been very good results from tribes who have managed exceptionally well with their assets. They have used methods that allow them time to make excellent assumptions & analytical research in their endeavours for their people by not looking at short term goals; nor to themselves; nor having incompetent members making there decisions.