Serious Fraud Office (New Zealand)

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The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) ( Māori Te Tari Hara Tāware ) is a government organization in New Zealand . It is their job, in cooperation with the New Zealand police , to uncover and investigate serious and complex economic crimes and to initiate their prosecution.

The organization is based at 21 Queen Street in Auckland . Her budget for 2014/15 was NZ $ 7,695,000. The organization is headed by Julie Read. The organization reports to the Minister of Justice . The head of the SFO can make operational decisions regardless of outside influence.

The SFO was created on the model of the British Serious Fraud Office with the Serious Fraud Office Act 1990 .

Suspects questioned by the SFO do not have the right to refuse to testify and must answer questions and provide required evidence, even if it is inconvenient to them. However, the evidence obtained from such an interview can only be used in court if the accused makes statements in court that contradict the results of the interview by the SFO. Witnesses can also be required to testify.

These surveys make it possible for people who have agreed confidentiality with customers to speak freely in front of the SFO without having to fear legal action from their customers. However, these regulations do not affect the confidentiality obligation associated with certain professions. Anyone who refuses to give evidence can be prosecuted and punished with a fine or imprisonment. However, such criminal proceedings are very rare and no one has yet been imprisoned for them.

The focus of the work of the SFO is:

  • Cases of investment fraud with numerous victims
  • Fraud cases involving people in a position of trust (such as lawyers)
  • Bribery and Corruption
  • Cases that can seriously damage New Zealand's reputation as a fair and free financial market.

Efforts to abolish it

The fifth Labor government announced in September 2007 that the SFO would be replaced by a newly created “Organized Crime Agency” .

However, the law to dissolve the SFO did not come into effect before the 2008 elections. Subsequent Prime Minister John Key informed Parliament that the SFO would not be dissolved.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Summary Tables for the Estimates of Appropriations 2014/15 . The Treasury , 2014, archived from the original on January 28, 2015 ; accessed on May 14, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).
  2. ^ A b Serious Fraud Office Act 1990. New Zealand Legislation, July 3, 1990, accessed March 25, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b Our Purpose & Role . Serious Fraud Office , 2015, archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; accessed on May 14, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).
  4. ↑ SFO Act p. 27
  5. ↑ SFO Act p. 45
  6. ↑ SFO to be scrapped in favor of new Organized Crime Agency . In: The New Zealand Herald , September 11, 2007. Retrieved October 21, 2010. 
  7. ^ Serious Fraud Office saved from ax . In: Stuff.co.nz , Farifax media, December 10, 2008. Retrieved October 21, 2010.