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