Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui (Major Kemp) was the main negotiator with the government but due to shady deals he was in debt as the land grab in NZ spread.

HOROWHENUA LAKE TRUSTEES 2020

PAID THEMSELVES THOUSANDS

Evening Standard May 19TH 2020:

Former Lake Horowhenua Trust chairman Matt Sword failed to properly

manage conflicts of interest when being paid thousands of dollars

Sad as he is a NZ lawyer & should

have know better but he scammed his Muaupoko tribal people.

& RIPPING ALL THE LAKE OWNERS OFF. NO WONDER WE HAVE A POLLUTED LAKE

All of the trustees should have been veted by the Judge--they were not.

Māori Land Court Judge Layne Harvey​ said their actions were clear breaches of the trust order, especially in relation to conflicts of interest and trustees not profiting from the trust.The findings come as part of a 100-page judgment released in May. The crux of the legal action began in 2013, when Rudd alleged some trustees were paid more than $350,000 from trust funds without disclosing conflicts of interest and payments to trust beneficiaries. The most series conflict claims were against former chairman Matt Sword​ and former treasurer Rob Warrington​.

The trustees denied all claims, saying election results in 2016 and 2019 showed they had support from trust beneficiaries.

The judge said the central issue was how conflicts of interests at the trust were managed.

The conflicts centred on payments made to trustees after the trust was given extensive funding from both local and central government, including the Ministry for the Environment and Horizons Regional Council, to try to fix the lake's pollution problems.

Management of those funds was delegated to a sub-committee known as a governance group, which appointed Sword to be an interim project manager.

While Sword said the group was fully controlled by the trust, the group never had to get any of its recommendations or decisions ratified by the trust — a breach of the trust deed. The trust was also the body which should have employed people and made payments to trustees, but that process was instead done by the governance group. That group paid out thousands of dollars to trustees — Sword, Warrington, Dr Jonathan Procter​, Marakopa Matakatea​, Keri Hori Te Pa​ and Kelly Tahiwi​ — for various contractor roles.

Figures supplied to the court show Sword was paid $216,500, and Warrington $85,570 between himself and a company he part-owned and directed, between May 2016 and October 2018.

But trust beneficiaries had no way of finding that out, as financials were not presented at annual general meetings.

The trustees also failed to declare conflicts of interest at critical points when being considered for paid work, breaching the trust order.The trust also failed to hold annual general meetings in line with the trust order, and did not properly consult with beneficiaries on important issues. 

"The short point is that the former trustees failed to adhere to their own trust order," the judge said.

Sword and Warrington had breached their duties around conflicts of interest so badly they should be banned from sitting on the trust board, the judge said. The length of such a ban would be decided at a later date. The other trustees paid money, however, would have relied on Sword's interpretation of the law, so they were distinct from the trio, the judge said.

The lake, one of New Zealand's most polluted, has for years been the focal point of tension between various groups

CHECK THE COURT CASE & RULING Of

the RuddVs Sword case May 2020[ HERE ]

SOME TRIBES LOST ALL THEIR MONEY

NGATI TAMA  

case of one man making decisions for a tribe started like this:

A long-running dispute over an investment that is believed to have cost a Taranaki iwi nearly half its $14.5 million treaty payout is expected to be settled in the High Court this month. The saga began between 2003 and 2005 when Ngati Tama is invested $7m in the My Virtual Home Company. The conflict, between My Virtual Home, which is in receivership, and Ngati Tama Custodian Trustee of Taranaki first arose in 2009. At that time Justice J Heath made an order in the High Court to stop the Ngati Tama Custodian Trustee company from taking any further steps to dispose of assets of Creative Design and Software Pty Ltd, The Australian subsidiary of My Virtual Home International, registered in New Zealand. The Ngati Tama iwi comes from northern Taranaki, in between Urenui and Mokau.

The dispute is over who owns source codes and licences, with the validity of security documents given by Creative Design Software Pty Ltd critical. My Virtual Home is a software programme which helps design and visualise building plans, which can be used by homeowners to make virtual alterations to see how they would look. Ngati Tama had previously taken out a debenture over Creative Design Software. It is believed Ngati Tama supplied $7m out of the $26m invested in My Virtual Home. The total is almost half of the iwi's $14.5m Treaty claim settlement it received in 2003. Greg White, who stood for National in the Maori seat of Te Tai Hauauru in the 2002 election, is the manager of Ngati Tama Custodian Trustee. He said he was limited in what he could say about the case because the matter was before the courts. Mr White is one of seven directors of the company and his father is listed as the sole shareholder. However, an iwi source told the Taranaki Daily News that some board members did not know about the extent of the investment in the company. "I can guarantee there are people on that board who don't know about it all," the person, who did not wish to be named, said. "We've (wider iwi) been left out of the picture." The source said there had been no annual general meeting for the last two years and there seemed to be confusion over the roles and obligations of board members. "They're meant to be keeping everyone informed, in the best interests of wider iwi." It is believed elderly kaumatua within the tribe had met to discuss the investment. Mr White denied that the board had not been informed. "The matter is before the courts at this moment so I'm limited by what I can say, but the board have approved the investment. "We are behind though. I'm not happy with the pace and the time it's taken to complete reports." He said board members usually represented their larger families and it was up to them to inform those whanau members.
Getting information to put into a report for Ngati Tama was now reliant on the outcome of court proceedings, he said. The case is expected to be heard in the Auckland High Court, starting on Monday. The court will consider who owned the source codes in late 2008, whether two debentures were valid and whether receivers of Computer Design Software Pty Ltd were validly appointed by Ngati Tama Custodian Trustee Ltd. - Taranaki Daily News