Roger Moses tells of disgrace, shock and life in jail
For a man who celebrated his 70th birthday in prison rubbing shoulders with some of New Zealand’s most notorious criminals, Roger Moses is remarkably gung-ho.
But behind the breezy exterior there are flashes of frustration and bewilderment at the price he has paid for his involvement in the collapse of Nathans Finance.
The former non-executive chairman of the finance company which went belly up in 2007 owing $174 million to 7000 investors, has spoken out exclusively about his torrid time to the National Business Review.
In his only media interview, just after being released from eight and a half months in jail, the former pillar of the Auckland financial establishment and co-author of five books on personal financial planning, recalled his “absolute shock” at being sentenced to two years two months behind bars for gross negligence.
“I thought it was very unlikely, mainly because the judge emphasised so often that there was no dishonesty involved and, in my case, no self interest involved, so everyone thought jail was not a likely outcome,” Moses said.
“I hoped home detention was the worst I would get and I was hoping I wouldn’t even get that but I think the judge was under pressure to make an example of us.
“I mean there was a lot of public pressure, so much clamouring for blood in the media and we just happened to be one of the first cabs off the rank.
“And we were certainly all tarnished by a gentleman [Rod Petricevic] who came somewhat later in the piece.”
But at the time none of this really registered with Moses, who turned up at court for sentencing without an overnight bag, let alone a toothbrush.
After a 13-week trial he and fellow directors Mervyn Doolan and Donald Young were found guilty of misleading investors in a Nathans prospectus aimed at raising $100 million from the public.
Young was given home detention and Doolan – due to be released any day – jailed for two years and four months.
The money was destined primarily to fund activities carried out by Nathans’ parent company VTL, a vending machine franchise business struggling to break into the US and European markets.
Clearly, Justice Paul Heath took a particularly dim view of Moses’ role in this, because in next to no time Moses found himself being led from the courthouse to a prison van, where he was handcuffed, locked in an iron cage and driven to the Auckland Central Remand Prison at Mt Eden.
For someone who has served with distinction on many professional and charitable bodies, such as the Institute of Directors, Chamber Music NZ, Plunket NZ, the NZ Symphony Orchestra Foundation, the Auckland Cricket Development Foundation, not to mention his long association with the Auckland Jewish community, it was a swift and brutal fall from grace.
Prison garb
“I was in absolute shock. I can remember part of what happened after sentencing but I think for the first 24 hours after sentencing I was fairly non-compus [mentis] and everything was a blur. I couldn’t believe what was going on.”
And neither could his wife of 46 years, Barbara, who was in complete shock at the sudden and dramatic turn of events.
She feared for his wellbeing because he has a number of chronic and potentially life threatening medical conditions.
“It was the most appalling, hideous shock when Roger, an honest man who had been good, caring and charitable, nearly 70 years of age and in poor health, was sentenced to prison when he fell well within the home detention area.
“Now I’m not forgetting the investors but I thought it would kill Roger outright and the fact that he has survived it says a lot about his strength.”
Once at Mt Eden Moses swapped his suit for prison garb.
“I turned up in quite a good suit and I was wearing this expensive Tag Heuer watch which I’d been given. Fortunately one of the inmates who was handing out clothes said to me: “You’d better get your wife to pick that up, mate, it’ll be gone in 10 minutes otherwise.”
The same inmate also gave him some friendly advice when prison staff asked him which wing he wished to be incarcerated in.
“He said to me “go to segs mate, go to segs.”
“I didn’t know what segs was but I found out it was segregated as opposed to mainstream so when they asked me I said segs and fortunately that was the right decision.
“In segs you have much better conditions. You don’t have the huge gang influence and things like that.”
Then it was off to his cell for the night and yet another surreal moment in a surreal day.
“I was hauled up to the cell about 7.30pm and walked past these cells and all these faces were peering out of little windows and several of them said, “Mate, I’ve just seen you on TV.”
And so began a six-week stint at the “Mount” where he shared a cell with a 29-year-old drug offender.
The two of them could not have been more unlikely cellmates; he an elderly well-to-do Pakeha businessman from Remuera, who had never seen the inside of a prison before, and his companion, a relatively young Maori career criminal from the wrong side of town.
Roger Moses story continues in PART TWO: Sharing a jail cell, learning the ropes
Back to home
Back to top
Print
Latest
NBR SERVICES
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Sign up for NBR subscriber content or email alerts
Comments and questions64
Not one tear falling from my eyes Roger.
The inept way that you and the other directors ran Nathan's finance basically diverting 80 or 90% of the investors money to VTL ( which was not understood by the invetsors ) resulted in your incarceration. Just because you didn't personally gain has nothing to do with your charges and conviction. You or your business partner Mr Stevens would have benefitted had VTL actually been a legitimate and priofiutable company - then you or Mr Stevens would have pocketed the dosh.
This tear jerking story ( not ) actaully proves you have no remorse and I wonder why the parole board let you out so early - maybe they didn't and you are only out because you served the required minimum time.
The books you have written about investment etc must now be worthless considering your recent history.
Best if you just put that huge ego to bed and retire gracefully Roger. The current publicity is just making you look worse.
The old saying goes "Your tears are rolling back and flooding your eyes"
I agree - serving only 30% of your sentence. Just think of the many people ripped off by being deceived as to what they were really invested in
Do the decent thing and keep your head down and stop moaning - just as dissapointing is the NBR giving you this oxygen
Rod, I beg of you: make your article, subscriber-only, so that I can't read it.
I have no more tears left to cry.
"....survived alongside dangerous criminals, gang members and drug addicts".
Could have just as easily read "...lawyers, accountants and auditors"
I wonder in terms of numbers, what the comparison would be of people devastated by the "dangerous criminals, gang members and drug addicts" to those affected by Roger Moses actions.
Did the crime,not the time
Is article helpful to his case or not ?
Makes me want to retch, reading this wretched self-serving dreck.
Difficult to fathom what the NBR are trying to achieve by running these articles. Sympathy for Moses and his wife perhaps?
In the interests of balanced reporting it would be helpful if the NBR could interview one of the many victims and their spouse.
I'll cry for him when the fraudster gives me my money back.
".......one of the inmates said 'it'll be gone in 10 minutes'......"
similar to what rog and gazza would have said when checking the investors deposit statements each day.
Roger mentions 'fortunately' a lot. I think the prison inmate that he was 'fortunate' to meet and 'fortunately' gave him good advice is the only person (with the possible exception of the judge) who comes out of this disgustingly sordid affair with a smidgen of credit. So now Roger is 'fortunate' enough to be out after a few weeks, will his victims be 'fortunate' enough to get their money back?
Why do white well-heeled guys of a certain age, and their wives, think they are better than others who have pulled off less lucrative deals? Moses is just like that Bernie Maddox in the US...absolutely no idea of the pain/suffering they've caused.
And why does NBR give all the former rip-off merchants the chance to re-invent themselves.
Check this out: Moses cra**ing in the bulrushes and no decent pharaoh about, to fully submerge him.
"Then it was off to his cell for the night and yet another surreal moment in a surreal day."
Yeah, yeah -- we hear you. Your immersion into surrealism, compares nought to those investors who were bleached, double-rinsed in Napisan and hung out to dry.
What you lack in gall, you more than make up for in brazenness.
Wild as Hell.
No sympathy and only anger that he has been given this platform. How could such an "astute" business man allow not just Nathan's investors but also VTL shareholder to lose so much. Where was his insight and the value for his director fees. Back home to his "trust' protecteed comfort whilst hapless others have lost it all.
Aha - so reading this, it's really all Rod's fault then that he got a jail sentence.
The upside to that, is there's a spray-tanner in remmmers servicing the finance industry, that's looking for new clients - may help with that prison pallor?
He went away for the most disgraceful misleading of investors I have seen. Essentially he was using investors money as equity in his own business. He deserved a lot more jail time. Why nit a bit of balance NBR and publish a story about many of the elderly investors who lost their life savings?
Felicitations to the inimitable Rod Vaughan. Another excellent piece of carefully-crafted writing. Certainly, worthy of passing under the gaze of Sir Bob Jones. As a matter of fact: why don't you get his reaction? He's trout-fishing in Turangi, this weekend. Drop in to interview him. By helicopter.
Nice troll NBR. I wonder what Moses was thinking consenting to this.
This should be a lesson to all current and aspiring directors and officers of companies, especially those offering securities to the public. You need to understand absolutely everything that is going on, be over-zealous in your disclosures and be very careful about which companies and people you are a director for.
That's the real lesson here - being a good bloke and part of the old boys network is not enough, directors need to be sceptical, highly competent, and diligent as well as scrupulously honest.
Spot on.
Cry me a river
Nothing in comparrison to the man who raped those girls and got let out because of mild dementia. Justice system is a joke.
A bit of advice for you, Roge: Seeking redemption here, by detailing your travails, is a bit like taking a cake of soap to have a wash in the Mangere sewage ponds. The efficacy of self-clensing is somewhat questionable.
Merv
Get off his back. It is completely unjust that he went to prison. Home detention maybe, but not prison.
The baying for blood way your all behaving might see you in prison next, for some minor crime.
Com'on now Barb, be fair, you've already had the chance to have your say.
In China, we simply throw crooks like Moses into jail, and throw away the keys.
If that had been done when Reeves Moses contributory mortgages went under, this crook would not have been around to cause the pain and heartaches suffered by Nathan Finance investors.
The very fact that this crook used an old trusted name "Nathan" to hook in millions of dollars shows just how clever and devious they (Nathan Finance directors and management) were.
I was wondering who remembered the old Reeves Moses failure.
They tried to balme one of their account managers for the failures and then they went their separate ways and repeated their pillage of the NZ Finance sector
Troubleshooter
could someone tell a eldery lady, who paid for the nathan finance trial, and what did the directors live on for the four years.surely the goverment can break trusts...joan w
Which statement is correct?
Moses
“ But we had $16M in the bank, we didn’t think we were under cash flow pressure..”
Receivers Report
“ At the date of receivership Nathans records indicated it had
Cash of $7.5M which has been recovered by the receivers”
Crims lie - that's the answer.
Id love to see the IP numbers of the anonymous posters. Something tells me the same person is posting more than once. Just a hunch. ;)
This guy is offering his story.
If you don't want to hear it then don't read it but it's infantile to suggest those that you feel did you wrong should stop fighting for their own survival. He's a thermo chemical machine, just like you are and we're all programmed for survival.
Your idealistic, middle class morality doesn't stand a chance against the laws of nature. He's not going to melt away and go into hiding. If you lost money, maybe even all your money then tough bikkies. No one cares.
You lost. Get over it and get on with it, or quit. Either way stop boring all of those of us that still have lots of money with your tiresome stories of victimisation. The truth is you were just a naive fool.
The first rule of a good investment strategy is diversification. If you had all your eggs in one basket then poo hoo for you. Go work at a supermarket in your final years because seriously... No one cares!!!
I think all the concrete may have gone to some peoples heads. Time to wake up. This is not a civil society. We're still just monkeys in the bush. So my advice is that you wake up to that real quick and learn to invest accordingly.
I care and as far as those of us who care are concerned, Mr Moses needs to know that we will not put up with his nonsense.
You may not care and that's fine - go live in your jungle and good luck.
If there had been full disclosure to investors, then I would agree with you. But there wasn't. How do you address that?
On the contrary, Mr Moses doesn't need to know anything about how you feel. It is in fact your need to be heard that has you clawing at the comments section of some virtual press.
But as per usual it is after the fact.
And while a little luck is always nice I surely don't rely upon it. Luck is for gamblers not investors. It's "our" jungle btw.
Mr Moses may not need to know but he now knows that we know he is a convicted criminal.
He will read a few of these comments and stop reading - that is good enough for those of us who care.
Hitler got away with murdering millions, especially the Jew, Russians and Gypsies, because not enough Germans care.
That is the society you want?
Mr Moses vs Hitler? Really?
Hitler got away with murdering millions because of a population of gullible fools who believed a madman because he told them exactly want they wanted to hear. Hitler appealed to the greed and ego of millions of ignorant fools who didn't take the time to think for themselves.
btw big whoop about what Moses thinks. He's not going to be the next conman on the block now is he? Moses doesn't need to change one bit. Investors do. If he didn't have their money he couldn't have burnt them now could he?
(//:
No sympathy from us businesswomen either.
Disgraceful breach of trust.
What about a reality TV show for directors in jail?
Re Anonymous. You don't sound smart enough to have any money. You sound like a first year economics student who thinks he knows the world.
That's what you sound like, not clever not interesting.
Just a bit of a prick.
Society is based on giving a thought to others, if you don't like other people, just leave.
Find an island, buy some friends.
Well said! Anyone, who needs to proclaim to have money, doesn't.
His postings are juvenile.
Where do people like you get these sayings from? I mean they're so absolute they're useless. It's precisely that kind of black and white thinking that allows so many to get suckered in the first place. There is absolutely no logic in that statement whatsoever.
Finding an island in New Zealand shouldn't pose too many difficulties.
was looking forward to part 2 - dam you and the paywall
The real question that needs to be examined is why New Zealand had such a meltdown in the finance and insurance sectors and Australia did not? Is it because both the Finance and Insurance sectors in Australia were better monitored?
In short, yes.
The Australians stopped Bridgecorp from taking deposits over there a year before it went under. NZ authorities stuck their heads in the sand and hoped the problems would go away. Plane Jane Diplock was busy flying around the world telling all and sundry what a great sheila she was.
The $1m odd is currently held in Trust at the High Court. The receiver is asking the Judge for this money so he can continue the action against the directors and auditors.
I wonder if the drug dealer that helped him through jail will ever get a dinner invite to Remuera once he is released....
exactly
Any ACT donations on the way ?
No remorse in this article just looking for sympathy, he hasnt learnt anything. He's made is money by ripping other people off with dodgy financial products and advice.
As we know you would not have everything in one basket. How many millions is sitting under your family’s name you have access to.
This is all just self serving clap trap still in denial he did anything wrong and blaming everybody else , and he is an honest man ,I still maintain the biggest crook at Nathans John Hotchin should have never been virtually let off , he just had the best lawyer and got in first , this guy is a real piece of work.
Re NBR's last paragraph
"The two of them could not have been more unlikely cellmates; he an elderly well-to-do Pakeha businessman from Remuera, who had never seen the inside of a prison before, and his companion, a relatively young Maori career criminal from the wrong side of town."
Shocking! And we wonder why there's such a high recidivism rate by young Maori, when one is paired up with a wizened crim.
Why are the prison administrators so ignorant?
Still cant believe John Hotchin got away almost scott free
Where is the money????
John got in first and 'grassed' the others up...mind you he did it hard ...home D in a $4mil pad...not his...of course.The big thieves all wear suits...and the biggest get...knighted.
A well-to-do pakeha business man from Remuera (described in the article) who turns criminal can expect the same treatment as the Maori criminal who was forced to share his cell with this miscreant. Do thieving scoundrels of the of the disposition described not realize this is a consequence of their deciet. I would have thought his advisers could have explained the impartiality expected of the law. The prison system is not exclusive to Maoris. The well-to-do, the Pakeha, and the Remuera resident are all welcome. Criminality has no colour coding.
PatTeri
This is not the 1st time this chap has been in front of the judiciary, shouldn't you have done your homework.
Former Reeves Moses mortgage manager awaits verdict Former Reeves Moses mortgage manager Peter Van Nieuwkoop told Auckland District Court judge Barry Morris this week he'd done wrong, but sought to lay the blame with the finance group's directors at the time. Mr Van Nieuwkoop was on trial before Judge Morris, sitting alone, for 7 days on charges alleging Securities Act regulation breaches. The case started with 36 charges, one of which was dropped, and a number of them in the alternative. The charges relate to loans to developers of 4 projects and consequent breaches of the Securities Act (Contributory Mortgage) Regulations when Mr Van Nieuwkoop was mortgage manager of Reeves Moses Hudig Mortgage Brokers Ltd. At the end of the trial on Tuesday, Judge Morris adjourned the hearing to Friday March 22 at 2.15pm to deliver his verdict. Directors tried & acquitted last August Mr Van Nieuwkoop followed 2 Reeves Moses directors into court on the same charges, but was charged from a different perspective. He is alleged to have altered documents and made changes, such as to the interest prepayments, without authorisation. The 70 charges against the directors, Roger Moses & Gary Stevens, were based on their responsibility to know what was in the documents
Yet you say you did nothing wrong but still at the age of 70 cant man up to the fact you are a convicted criminal who has ruined the lifes of hundred if not thousands of hardworking investors, shame on you Mr Moses you are how do i say the lowest piece of trash there is the 29 year old drug dealer that you shared a cell with I have more respect for him, and to you talking about possesions such as your expensive watch and suit get a life sunshine do you think the investors you bankrupted so you can wear that suit and watch have those things anymore?? and to the fact you get your wife to speak on your behalf is shameful you two deserve one another. Enjoy unemployement buddyboy wait you prob will enjoy your retirement while the people you screwed over will not. How about another offer of $425k that you tried to pass off as a get out of jail free card. You and the rest are a bunch if connon criminals!
Just ignore them all Roger. You're a terrific chap who never should have been incarcerated. This country needs more people like you. It was clearly an honest mistake. It was an insult and a disgrace that you were imprisoned. Don't let the petty Noo Zoolander mindset get to you. I'm sure you wont. Its an internationally recognised fact that the majority of them are financially illiterate anyway so trying to explain the nuances of corporate life is little more than an exercise in futility. I hope you have a long and happy retirement.
'... trying to explain the nuances of corporate life"
Oh, that's what you call "lying, cheating, and stealing", is it?
In varying degrees, yes.
I remember just weeks before Nathans Finance and VTL crashed revceiving one of Rog's regular letters inviting the reader that there was no better place to invest there hard earned cash than in Nathans Finance. The guy makes me want to puke with his no sense of remorse or regret. They should have locked him up and thrown away the key for the financial carnage and heart break he helped perpetuate.
Didn't this guy face criminal charges before in relation to Sovereign? The holier than thou attitude of him and his wife are appalling. They should be shunned and chased out of Remuera, Auckland and NZ. It's interesting that none of their supposedly huge support network has stepped out from the shadows.