The Allan Hubbard supporters
I have previously blogged my hope that Allan Hubbard will be found to have done nothing wrong. From all accounts he is a wonderful New Zealander, who has done much good and has the best of intentions.
However that does not mean that he, or his companies, are exempt from the law. And indeed there are some problems to be accounted for, as reported by the Herald:
About 300 investors in Hubbard Management Funds (HMF) have been told by statutory managers that the reported value of their investments at March 31 was overstated by at least 25 percent.
In their second report, statutory managers Richard Simpson and Trevor Thornton of Grant Thornton New Zealand also warned today that investors in another company operated by Timaru businessman Allan Hubbard, Aorangi Securities Ltd, may suffer a loss in their investments.
This indicates to me the legal process should continue until there is a clear resolution. But one group of his supporters has been getting very excited. There is a bit of a split in his supporters. Some want to engage a professional public law firm to engage on their behalf (which seems sensible), while another group wants to run full-page newspaper adverts. And what do they want the ads to say:
The idea that has been put forth is to run half or full page newspaper advertisement’s in the NZ Herald, the Dominon Post, The Christchurch Press, and the Otago Daily Times, in the form of an open letter to the Prime Minister, demanding the cessation of statutory management and the removal of the SFO from this situation.
This is probably the most appalling idea I have ever seen. A group of citizens saying we want the Prime Minister to interfere in a criminal investigation and to try and call the SFO off. This is in fact a call for corruption – what else can you call it – to have political pressure decide who does or does not get investigated by the SFO,.
The group seems to have had some negative feedback to their plans, and are now talking slightly different ads. But it is clear to me their blind loyalty to Allan Hubbard has suspended their facility for clear thought and reason.
As I said, I hope Allan Hubbard is found to have done nothing wrong, but they are decisions for independent authorities, and not something that should be decided by newspaper advertisements.