The conduct of Serious Fraud Office director Adam Feeley would not have been tolerated if the agency had merged with the police.

Police Association president Greg O’Connor gave a barbed answer when asked if Mr Feeley’s reported behaviour would be tolerated by senior members of the New Zealand Police.

“Mr Feeley’s probably very lucky there was no amalgamation,” Mr O’Connor said.

A merger of the SFO and the police was mooted in 2008 but the incoming National government scotched the proposal.

The National Business Review understands revelations about Mr Feeley’s conduct have caused Judith Collins, Minister of Police and the SFO, considerable concern.

Mr Feeley toasted charges being laid against Bridgecorp directors Rod Petricevic, Rob Roest, Gary Urwin and Peter Steigrad with a bottle of the finance company’s champagne.

Mr Feeley acquired the bottle of Gossett, when he worked for the Eden Park Redevelopment Board that shared offices with the finance company.

In another damning blow, last week the Herald reported Mr Feeley awarded a copy of Allan Hubbard’s biography A Man Out of Time as a “booby prize” at an SFO Christmas raffle.Ms Collins has referred the matter to the State Services Commission which this week dragged the chain by declining to give a timeframe for the conclusion of its probe. “It’s still progressing, we’re working on it as fast as we can. We’re hoping to release it as quickly as possible,” a spokeswoman for the commission said.

Last week NBR reported calls by the head of the Criminal Bar Association for Mr Feeley to resign over the scandal.

Who is Feeley?
Adam John Jud Feeley became the head of the Serious Fraud Office in November 2009 and replaced the long-serving Grant Liddell.

According to the State Services Commission, the body investigating Mr Feeley, the position attracts an annual salary of at least $340,000.

Mr Feeley commutes by ferry to the SFO headquarters in Auckland from a residence in Oneroa on Waiheke Island with a rateable valuation of $770,000. According to property records he paid $850,000 for the Oneroa residence in 2006.

NBR understands Mr Feeley is a member of Auckland’s Northern Club, having been sponsored into the exclusive membership by Crown solicitor and regular SFO prosecutor Simon Moore.

Before joining the SFO Mr Feeley oversaw the $240 million upgrade of Auckland’s rugby stadium as chairman of the Eden Park Redevelopment Board.

Naming rights to the project were left unsold, leaving the costs of the project to be almost entirely underwritten by tax-payers and rate-payers.

Earlier he worked as group manager for Crown Minerals overseeing petroleum exploration and was Baycorp general manager .

His CV said he graduated with an LLB from Canterbury University in 1985 and studied for a short period at the London School of Economics.