Serious Fraud Office head Adam Feeley wants to see single law enforcement agency created to tackle white collar crime.Speaking at a conference on white collar crime and serious fraud in Auckland today, he also said a national fraud strategy was needed to
Serious Fraud Office head Adam Feeley wants to see single law enforcement agency created to tackle white collar crime.
Speaking at a conference on white collar crime and serious fraud in Auckland today, he also said a national fraud strategy was needed to help coordinate counter-fraud activity.
Mr Feeley, who became SFO chief executive in November last year, said the SFO worked largely in isolation and priorities often conflicted with the police, the Companies Office, the Securities Commission.
Combining these agencies into a single white collar crime agency, like the incoming Financial Markets Authority (FMA), would increase capacity for investigations and avoid cross-overs and unnecessary duplication of resources, he said.
The FMA will bring together the regulatory powers of the Securities Commission, the Ministry of Economic Development, including the Government Actuary and the NZX when it starts operating early next year.
“We’ve got a long way to go before answer the question of is there to be one law enforcement agency for financial market and corporate fraud in NZ,” said Mr Feeley.
With 40 staff, the SFO is the second smallest government department after the Ministry of Women’s Affairs
Internal restructuring since his appointment as chief executive in November, has seen a focus on bedding in new management and creating two discrete teams focusing on financial markets and fraud and corruption.
Mr Feeley said more staff were being recruited and the SFO’s capacity was hampered by resources.
The SFO needed to deal with fewer cases and investigations had faced delays because the office had taken on too much, he said.
Mr Feeley inherited a backlog of cases when he joined the office in November, when more than 60% of cases were taking more than a year to complete.
He said the office had capacity to complete 6-12 cases a year under its annual $7 million funding.
“We won’t take on cases we can’t do well and quickly.”
The SFO currently has seven cases under investigation.
It has most recently been in the spotlight for its high-profile investigation into Allan Hubbard’s private finance company Aorangi Securities – an alleged $135 million investment fraud.
Mr Feeley said he wanted the office to become more proactive in initiating its own investigations.
