No Positive Result $12m Spent on Winebox - Birch
Rt Hon Sir William Birch
Minister of Finance and
Minister of Revenue
20 August, 1999
For Immediate
Release
No Positive Result for $12m Spent on Wine Box - Birch
Revenue Minister Sir William Birch tonight said that
more than $12m had been spent to date investigating Winston
Peters' allegations about IRD and the Serious Fraud Office,
and not a single one of them had so far been proved.
"After all that vast cost to the taxpayer, the High Court
does not find there was fraud in the Magnum affair or
incompetence in IRD and the SFO. What it finds is a legal
error in the argument the Commission used to reach certain
conclusions.
"Mr Peters demanded that the Commissioner
of IRD and the Head of the Serious Fraud Office be sacked
for incompetence. Today's judgement does not show fraud or
find IRD incompetent or justify Mr Peters'
allegations.
"In 59 out of 60 cases, the original view of
the Commission of Inquiry remains totally intact. Mr Peters
caused spending in excess of $12m in pursuit of this matter.
He has not successfully proved anything of substance in any
of the wine box
cases."
Ends