A massive leak of millions of documents has exposed the secret offshore financial arrangements of the world's rich and powerful, including billionaires, political leaders, celebrities, sports stars, and public officials.

Launching today, The Pandora Papers is a major international investigation by dozens of media outlets including the New Zealand Herald that reveals how wealthy elites used complex offshore structures – including New Zealand-based trusts – to shelter assets and move money around the globe.

Among the prominent figures whose financial arrangements have been exposed are 35 country leaders including the King of Jordan, around 330 politicians and high-level public officials, and 133 billionaires.

Believed to be the biggest data leak in history, the Pandora Papers will intensify international debate about the enormous scale of offshore finance at a time of rising concern about economic inequality.

Read the full article here. 

Wellington police are seeing a surge in fraudulent online transactions as the return to Level 2 allows online trading of goods to resume.

In a statement, police said they were receiving multiple reports of buyers using false bank transfer statements and falsified digital documents to confirm payments have been made.

Police statistics were likely to tell only a part of the story as many people didn’t report the scamming out of embarrassment but police urged people to report any suspicious activity to give them the best chance of catching offenders.

Read the full article here.

The trial of two former Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority employees charged over an alleged fraud involving a government-funded waste-to-energy plant on the West Coast began today.

Gerard Anthony Gallagher, 62, and Simon Carl Nikoloff, 57, were both working for the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) in 2017 when they were the subject of an investigation by the State Services Commission (SSC) into alleged private property deals.

The SCC referred the pair to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) as a result and they were later charged.

Read more here.

A university student has lost $70,000 borrowed from friends and family to overseas scammers targeting Mandarin speakers.

Just a semester into a business degree at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Sally Lin’s world was “turned upside-down” after being scammed by a group pretending to be police and prosecutors in China, accusing her of involvement in a “high-profile” international money laundering case.

Read more here. 

While businesses' attitudes to cyber security are shifting, 3 in 5 small businesses believe they should be doing more to keep secure online, says CERT NZ.

According to research from the government cyber security agency CERT NZ, the majority of small businesses with an online presence understand the importance of protecting their website.

Over half (54%) of those surveyed said their organisation is concerned about cyber security, and 46% are trying to learn more about keeping their online business safe.

Despite this, some small businesses are not taking action to secure themselves.

Only 38% believe their business adequately invests in cyber security, and just 34% believe their business has put a lot of thought and planning into being cyber secure. Most concerning, under half (45%) have processes in place to prevent a cyber attack.

Read the full article here.

Euro Corporation Limited (Euro) has been fined $361,000 for making false or misleading and unsubstantiated representations relating to its earthquake grade steel mesh products, known as SE615.

Auckland District Court Judge M-E Sharp sentenced Euro on 14 charges brought by the Commerce Commission under the Fair Trading Act. Euro pleaded guilty to making false or misleading and unsubstantiated representations for its SE615 steel mesh products which it marketed and sold as being earthquake grade steel mesh (known in the industry as 500E grade) between January 2012 and August 2015.

Read the full article here.

Kelly Simon Tonkin (52) appeared in the Christchurch District Court today and pleaded guilty to charges of 'False accounting', 'False statements by promoter' and 'Forgery'. 

The charges related to his management of the Penrich Global Macro Fund which was a Cayman Islands registered company set up in September 2004. The Fund invested in a range of financial instruments including fixed income securities and currency instruments. Significant losses were concealed by Mr Tonkin who continued to solicit investments in the Fund. It was placed into voluntary liquidation by its shareholders in April 2020.

Read the full article here.

CERT NZ words to support businesses, organisations and individuals affected by cyber security fraud and it's revealed a 25 percent year-on-year increase in incidents to 1,431 from 1 January to 31 March.

Almost a quarter of those reports resulted in direct financial losses, with phishing and credential harvesting remaining the most reported incidents, followed by scams and fraud.

You can read the full Newshub article here. 

The defendants are entitled to seek name suppression therefore the SFO will not be naming any defendants until any name suppression issues have been resolved.

See here for more information.

With money laundering prosecutions on the rise and about $1.35billion laundered through businesses annually as a result of fraud, illegal drugs, tax evasion and other crimes, is New Zealand enforcement doing enough?

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, setting standards for more than 200 countries and jurisdictions to help authorities combat serious crime including drug smuggling, human trafficking and terrorism.

FATF reports identify what countries are doing right - and where they need to improve - in relation to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing frameworks.

The watchdog released its 2020 report in to New Zealand on Thursday, finding it had achieved notable results tackling money laundering, however there is room for improvement.

Read the full article here.