10 October 2008

SFO Probe A Waste Of Time

Rt Hon Winston Peters has described the Serious Fraud Office investigation into New Zealand First as a total and unnecessary waste of time as there was never anything to be investigated.

Mr Peters’ comments follow the announcement this afternoon by SFO Director Grant Liddell that the investigation into the handling of donation to New Zealand First “has found no fraud”.

“The only complainant in this sorry episode was a sad little man in a yellow coat, so desperate for attention he used a tawdry stunt to tie up the resources of an agency that should have been investigating serious corporate crime.

“My advice to the SFO is to go and find some real crooks in the dying days of their organization, which was set up in 1990 to fight serious white collar crime – a task it has failed miserably at.

“Fair-minded New Zealanders will be delighted at the confirmation that no fraud was ever committed, as we have always maintained.

“The SFO has raised some other matters in relation to the return of donations to the Electoral Commission and the police investigation into this.

“We have provided all the relevant information and fully cooperated with both these agencies and hope this matter will be resolved quickly.”

Mr Peters said the party would be continuing with its complaint to the police that some officers of the Serious Fraud Office misused their statutory powers in reporting information to politicians on the Privileges Committee.

ENDS

© Scoop Media