Serious Fraud Office chief executive Adam Feeley has confirmed transactions disclosed in the National Business Review concerning South Canterbury Finance's murky involvement in the Auckland Hyatt Regency hotel are part of the investigation his office laun
Serious Fraud Office chief executive Adam Feeley has confirmed transactions disclosed in the National Business Review concerning South Canterbury Finance's murky involvement in the Auckland Hyatt Regency hotel are part of the investigation his office launched this morning.
Mr Feeley said the suspect loans stretched back to 2005, but the timeframe could be stretched as his investigation progressed. The NBR reported in last weeks' print edition that South Canterbury's financial interest in the Hyatt began in 2002.
The SFO probe is wider than the Hyatt and also encompasses at least four other related-party loans that were the recipient of millions of dollars of South Canterbury loans.
Mr Feeley refused to disclose what other entities were being probed, except to confirm that the total amount of loans suspected involved in fraud was "considerably higher" than the $42.3 million advanced for the Hyatt.
Mr Feeley said the related-party loans were being investigated to see whether they involved a failure of disclosure to investors or to the government when South Canterbury sought to enter the original and extended retail deposit guarantee schemes.
The SFO was beginning interviews immediately, Mr Feeley said.
"When we start having those interviews we get a sense of where things will head. We could hear anything from 'We’ve got a completely innocent explanation for that,’ or they could put their hand up and say ‘We’re guilty of fraud.’ We're not expecting the latter though."
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