Documents wait on Digi-tech

By Deborah Hill Cone

Friday 5th March 2004

Boxes of documents of evidence in the Digi-Tech case taken from witnesses in Hong Kong are sitting in a locked vault at the High Court in Auckland waiting for intense argument over whether they are admissible.

The Serious Fraud Office case against John Reid, John Currie, Peter Connolly and Peter Russell was last year committed for trial in the High Court.

The four businessmen face charges alleging conspiracy to defraud and money laundering over an international tax-minimising scheme they promoted, which involved investors buying shares in Wellington technology company Digi-Tech.

High-profile investors including QCs and politicians put money into the scheme and later were forced to pay high penalties and interest to the IRD when their deductions were disallowed.

At issue in the SFO proceedings is whether Hong Kong-administered bank loan and insurance deals, which were part of the Digi-Tech transaction, were real.

The case was referred to the High Court after a complicated and drawn out depositions hearing before two Justices of the Peace in the Auckland District Court. The depositions were heard in three tranches throughout the year, with the SFO travelling to Hong Kong in between to take evidence from key witnesses.

When the Crown sought to have that evidence admitted, counsel for the defendants objected, and the documents have been sealed until the arguments are heard at a pre-trial hearing in June.

The case proper has been set down for six weeks in September.

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