Call to expand not discard (SFO)

White Collar Crime has at least quadrupled since 1990, yet the Government are getting rid of the SFO.

In the wake of the current climate EUFA are publicly calling for the Serious Fraud Office ( SFO) to be retained and significantly expanded with powers widened.

White Collar Criminals who have committed crimes, including crimes committed under the companies act and they need to be caught. With huge cases currently being investigated and with more to come, the move to close the SFO is another demonstration that the politicians are out of touch with reality over the current crisis.

After attending the EUFA meeting in Tauranga last Thursday, New Zealand First MP Peter Brown said he was not aware of the seriousness of the current situation. This is an MP who’s party campaigned on White Collar Crime. The National party campaigned in 1990 against White Collar Crime and The Labour Government introduced the Serious Fraud office in 1989. They all agree that White Collar Criminals must be held to account but who is doing it?

With the devastation caused by White Collar Crime in New Zealand and with reports of the finance crisis effecting half a million people how can the SFO shut up shop? There will undoubtedly be fresh complaints laid and the loss of the SFO and their talented officers, New Zealand faces a very dim future. Dishonesty will become the norm and flippantly dismissed.

EUFA have previously called on Government for inquiries and task forces to assist victims of White Collar Crime, who face losing their homes and all they have worked for but the victims through EUFA have been ignored with total disregard.

To cope with the flood of claims EUFA are now calling for a arbitrary body to be set up urgently, under the Umbrella of the SFO, for victims of the troubled Finance companies. Victims can not afford a natural right to an effective remedy therefore an arbitrary body is the only way for them to seek their common rights to justice – giving them a fair hearing. The current systems are a farce. People who have breached the fair trading act run and hide and leave victims devastated. The country is letting its crooks walk due to significant legal costs to their victims which are unaffordable..

A New Zealand family who was recently posted to the UK on work with the New Zealand Army, claimed yesterday in a call to EUFA executive that they had spent all their savings on taking legal action against their financial advisor and can no longer afford to carry the action further. The advisors are still living the high life – the family have lost their home. The EUFA member said in a txt before the call “We have been rung dry by legal fees and have nothing left to give and hence cannot afford to proceed. We have lost all faith in the NZ justice System”

EUFA coordinator Suzanne Edmonds said “The investor is not alone as almost all our members state the same about the NZ justice system and the governance over the Finance industry. People losing homes and house money through corrupt practice defies belief but all effected investors are simply dismissed as greedy! ”