Herald confirms trust not set up at time of donation

The NZ Herald reports:

Mr Henry – who has a close relationship with Mr Peters – said yesterday that the money was held in a lawyer’s trust account until the Susan Couch trust was set up properly and incorporated in September.

The trust account was that of Dennis Gates, another trustee of the Susan Couch trust and also a solicitor for Mr Peters.

So the money owed to the taxpayer went into a trust account of Winston’s solictor and then months later transferred (with interest) to the Susan Couch trust account controlled by Winston’s solictor and barrister.

Mr Henry said he asked for the money for the Susan Couch trust.

“Heaps of idiots turned down donations so I rang up Winston and said ‘hey, I’ve got a charitable trust here which won’t turn you down’,” he said.

Not idiots Mr Henry. People who realise that there is a moral component to this issue – the money is owed to the taxpayer and shouldn’t be given away to pet charities. Also these “idiots” probably calculated that they would lose more money in the long term by accepting the donation.

The setting up of the trust was not yet complete and final clearance from Inland Revenue was required.

So four months after the donations were made, the charity that got half the $158,000 isn’t yet registered as a charity.

I guess they couldn’t find any established charity to take their money.