NZ Herald on SFO

The Herald says the SFO should remain:

There are good reasons to retain the Serious Fraud Office. One of the most obvious was mentioned last week by the Finance Minister, Michael Cullen, when he noted New Zealand was facing the most complex and challenging economic forces for 20 years. The fall-out from this will demand a dedicated fraud-detection agency.

Several commentators have said that in the midst of finance company collapses in entirely the wrong time to abolish them.

To suggest, however, as Progressives leader Jim Anderton has, that this inquiry was initiated by the SFO to serve its own purposes is ludicrous. Even greater depths of shamefulness were plumbed by the Prime Minister yesterday when she claimed it was “almost certain” the SFO tipped off National about its intention to investigate NZ First. The two extraordinary accusations suggest nothing less than a wilful and self-serving Government campaign to undermine the credibility of one of its own law-enforcement agencies.

And what do you call a Government which campaigns against its own law enforcement agencies?

Harsh times inevitably bring to light practices that tend to remain concealed when things are going well. Already, the SFO is investigating the Blue Chip property companies that went into liquidation this year owing $80 million to 2000 investors, and Bridgecorp, a finance company that owes about $500 million to 18,000 depositors. History suggests other probes will follow. This mocks the Government’s claim that substantial white-collar crime is no longer part of the landscape, and that it is safe to dispense with the agency.

But what about the sucessor?

There is little chance that alleged rorts by finance-company executives would be tackled adequately by the police’s Organised and Financial Crime Agency, which, according to the Government plans, would absorb the SFO. The Police Minister, Annette King, has admitted the agency’s focus would “very much” be gangs, as part of a strategy of getting tough on organised crime. The type of investigation typically undertaken by the SFO would not be a priority, and would also be seen as far more onerous than tackling gang activity. Fraud is the the most difficult of crimes to detect and prove its intent beyond reasonable doubt.

Indeed.