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The Work of the New Zealand Serious Fraud Office White Collar Crime - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
The Work of the New Zealand Serious Fraud Office White Collar Crime - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
The Work of the New Zealand Serious Fraud Office White Collar Crime and Serious Fraud Conference AUCKLAND 2 JULY 2010 WHAT IS THE SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE? SFO: An Overview Mandate investigate and prosecute serious or complex fraud Part 1 -
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- DRAFT Comunications Plan
- June 2010
Mandate – investigate and prosecute serious or complex fraud Part 1 - Detection
- Grounds: reasonable suspicion that an investigation may disclose
serious or complex fraud.
- Powers: issue notices to obtain documents or information for the
detection of serious and complex fraud. Part 2 – Investigation
- Grounds: reasonable belief that an offence of serious and complex
fraud may have been committed.
- Powers: issue notices for provision of information or documents
and/or attend interview No privilege against self-incrimination Crimes Act offences, but not exclusively
SFO: An Overview
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- DRAFT Comunications Plan
- June 2010
Staff:
- 40 staff
- Investigators, lawyers, forensic accountants
External Prosecution Panel Current Investigations:
- Blue Chip (alleged $200M+ investment fraud)
- Nathans Finance (alleged $50M+ investment fraud)
- Five Star Finance (alleged investment fraud)
- Lane Walker Rudkin (alleged $120M+ funding fraud)
- Capital + Merchant (alleged $165M+ investment fraud)
- ACC (alleged corrupt or fraudulent payments/inducements)
- Aorangi Securities & Alan Hubbard (alleged $135M investment fraud)
SFO: An Overview cont.
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SFO 1990-2010
WHERE HAVE WE BEEN?
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- DRAFT Comunications Plan
- June 2010
- The “Gang of 20” allegations
- Equiticorp; RSL; Landcorp; Goldcorp; etc
- To give greater confidence regarding corporate behaviour
- NOT created to investigate tax; welfare etc fraud
Reasons for SFO’s Creation
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- DRAFT Comunications Plan
- June 2010
- 90% conviction rate & $500k threshold
- Cases of employee embezzlement and mortgage fraud
- Delays: up to 60% of cases taking >12 months
- 40%+ of recent sentences home detention or ≤ 2years
imprisonment
- Parallel investigations and prosecutions to Securities
Commission or Companies Office
- Isolation
- Consequences for finance companies (Clegg, Bridgecorp etc)
SFO’s recent legacy
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SFO 2010
WHERE ARE WE AT?
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Recent changes
- New strategic priorities: “Fewer; Faster; Bigger; Better”
–Cost-efficiency and effectiveness –Better information and intelligence –Greater collaboration (public and private) –Greater capability (people and tools)
- New management structure with two discrete teams:
–Financial markets –Fraud and corruption
- New threshold:
–$2M, with priority given to $10M+ or 100+ investor cases –A need for a level of forensic accounting or investigative analysis beyond the resources or expertise of other agencies
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Recent changes (cont.)
New measures of success: – No 90% conviction rate – Timeliness: inquiry and investigation – Quality: custodial sentences – Effectiveness: self-initiated investigations – Relevance: public communication New manner of operation: – Appointment of Prosecution Counsel – “charge” focused – Multiple investigators and accountants – Differing priorities – Greater use of delegation and disclosure powers – Inter-agency investigations – Private outsourcing – Greater consideration of Solicitor General Prosecution Guidelines
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SFO 2020
WHERE WILL WE BE……OR WHERE SHOULD WE BE?
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The Future
Future structure
- Police vs SFO
- FMA vs SFO
- Economic Crime Agency?
- National Fraud strategy?
Future focus
- Financial markets
- Foreign corrupt practices
- Public sector corruption
Future sanctions
- Financial reporting orders
- Serious crime prevention orders
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