NZ ‘falling behind’ on corruption
Rules that allow Kiwi firms to disguise their true owners are again under the spotlight after an international media investigation highlighted links between an Auckland firm and alleged money laundering.
The investigation, called The Daphne Project, claimed an Auckland firm, Denton Morrell, was part of a worldwide network of companies that helped hold assets such as factories and properties connected to the families of Azerbaijan leaders, Radio NZ reported.
Denton Morrell says on its website that the company specialises in providing ‘‘bespoke private wealth solutions’’.
The Daphne Project, which involves 46 journalists from 16 countries, was created after Maltese journalist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered by a car bomb last year while investigating links between Malta and money-laundering linked to Azerbaijan.
Denton Morrell’s director is listed by the Companies Office as Matthew James Butterfield, who is also listed as a present or past director of dozens of New Zealand-registered companies.
Many of those entities list their sole shareholder as Denton Morrell, but Radio NZ reported that their ‘‘beneficial owners’’ – the people who effectively owned their assets – were Denton Morrell’s wealthy clients.
The actual owners of some of the other New Zealand-registered entities directed by Butterfield are disclosed on the Companies Office register and appear to be wealthy individuals based in countries including Mexico and the United States.
Radio NZ said there was no suggestion Denton Morrell or Butterfield were aware of any allegations relating to money-laundering that may have been carried out by the Azerbaijan-linked companies with connections to the wealth management firm.
Lobby group Transparency International said in October that the former Government had taken positive steps to combat the misuse of companies and trusts.
But New Zealand was now ‘‘falling behind’’, the organisation said.
‘‘A particular shortcoming’’ was a lack of progress establishing a publiclysearchable register of the beneficial ownership of New Zealand entities.
New Zealand had made a commitment to establish such a register at an anticorruption summit (ACS) in London attended by former police minister Judith Collins in 2016, but had not yet followed through.
‘‘There is no action on the ACS commitment to create a company beneficial ownership register or a strategy for making both public,’’ it said.