Open Letter to David Cunliffe

Open Letter to David Cunliffe

Dear Mr Cunliffe,

We are writing to you on behalf of investors in the various business entitities belonging to Allan and Margaret Hubbard, of Timaru, which are currently under statutory management and being subjected to a Serious Fraud Offfice investigation by the crown.

On Saturday 18th September 2010, approximately 200 investors in the abovementioned entities attended a meeting held in Timaru, to inform them of their position and possible remedies available to them in this situation.

The result of a unanimous vote of the investors present at that meeting, is that we have been entrusted to write to you to request that you read the entire contents of this message to Parliament.

On the 20th June 2010, when statutory management and an SFO investigation were imposed upon Allan, Margaret and their investors, their lives were shattered, and have worsened since.

Since then, we have experienced the poignant but nevertheless heartbreaking unfolding of hopes being destroyed, lives being turned turned upside down, and the gut wrenching fear and anxiety present when the accumulation of the investor's life's work is about to evaporate in front of their eyes, on the journey of trying to help Allan and Margaret and the investors involved in this process.

In contrast to this, private sector interests have made large profits from the receivership of South Canterbury Finance, some of whom have known personal associations with Government officials involved in the decision making processes that lead to these measures being taken.

In 2005, the then Attorney General stated that the SFO must act independently of the Minister as a consitutional safeguard. We believe that, in the case of Allan and Margaret Hubbard, the SFO has been applied for political reasons, and is therefore in contravention of the act governing it.

We are firmly of the belief that political pressure has been applied to the SFO to find fraud in this matter, and are determined to challenge any findings instantly if they are against Allan Hubbard. We believe in him wholeheartedly, and in his innocence, and will continue to do so.

We have evidence of potential collusion between state sector employees and private sector interests to strip Allan and Margaret Hubbard and many of their investors of their assets, while the private sector interests who are personally known to the abovementioned state sector employees have made profits of tens of millions of dollars from the receivership of South Canterbury Finance.

The government has had Allan and Margaret on trial in the media now for over three months, with no evidence provided whatsoever to support claims made in the two statutory manager's reports released to the media without the Hubbard's knowledge so far. Information has been released into the media which has shaped public opinion about them in an extraordinarily negative way, and they have been vilified by media commentators as if the evidence produced by the government so far is overwhelming, which it is far from being.

The complaint used to justify the courses of action taken by Securities Commission member Simon Botherway in this matter is both anonymous and unsigned. Further to this, Simon Botherway failed to declare his brother's prior financial relationship with South Canterbury Finance when he acted on this complaint, until four days after statutory management and the SFO were applied as a result of recommendations made to Minister Simon Power by a committee including Securities Commission staff, including Simon Botherway.

We are profoundly disturbed by the knowledge that the person who will be our next financial regulator was unable to remove himself from involvement in a situation that presented such a clear and obvious conflict of interest.

We are even more disturbed by Simon Botherway's known prior business association(s) in the form of company directorships with private sector interests who have profited greatly from the receivership of South Canterbury Finance, while many elderly investors have either lost their life savings, or are about to.

We are also disturbed by the use of the Corporations Investigation and Management Act 1989 in the case of Aorangi Securities Ltd and the Hubbard's other entities. We cannot see in any way how the actions of the government, the statutory managers, or the SFO in this matter have preserved the interests of the business(es) or the confidence of the investors, as it is required to do.

In fact, it has been described as a good law, being used in a spectacularly bad way, against the wrong people.

It would almost appear that Allan Hubbard is being held accountable for every finance company failure in the last ten years, if the level of blame being attributed to him for the taxpayer bail out present in mainstream media is anything to go by.

In fact, the imbalance present in the media representation of him was any more extreme, we would have cause to wonder if capital punishment may be called for in his case.

Given that the decisions made which led to this were of an executive nature, and therefore not subject to judicial review, we sincerely believe that enough evidence exists to call a halt to statutory management, to remove the SFO from this situation, and to justify a full public inquiry into the events that preceded the receivership of South Canterbury Finance.

The public enquiry we are demanding must include a thorough investigation into the role(s) of the Securities Commission, the Commerce Commission, the Companies Office, The Serious Fraud Office, Simon Botherway, Jane Diplock, Minister Simon Power, Minister Bill English, The Prime Minister, Trevor Thornton Statutory Managers, as well as their relationships with the private sector interests that have profited from their decisions in relation to Allan and Margaret Hubbard, their respective business interests, including South Canterbury Finance, and investors who have been adversely affected by those decisions.

We are able to provide evidence to support all of the claims made in this correspondence, as well as for claims that we have yet to make. We have not included all of our claims in this correspondence as it would be too voluminous.

If money was not being used as a justification in this matter, then the human and civil rights abuses being perpetrated against Allan and Margaret Hubbard would be as indefensible as they are given that money *is *being used as a justification for these abuses.

We demand an immediate cease to all abovementioned actions carried out by the government in relation to this matter, and for the inquiry we have requested to commence without delay.

Your Sincereley,

Paul Carruthers, Keiran Trass and Michelle Helliwell,

On behalf of the Hubbard investors who were able to be present at the abovementioned meeting.

ENDS

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