Winston First party referred to the Police

The Electoral Commission has announced:

The Electoral Commission has made enquiries into issues raised regarding the NZ First Party and the NZ First Foundation and their compliance with the requirements for donations and loans.

Based on the information available, we have formed the view that the NZ First Foundation has received donations which should have been treated as party donations for the NZ First Party.

In the Commission’s view, the donations were not properly transmitted to the Party and not disclosed as required by the Electoral Act 1993.

The Commission does not have the investigative powers to form a view about whether this failure to transmit and the non-disclosure means offences have been committed.

These matters have therefore been referred to the New Zealand Police, which have the necessary powers to investigate the knowledge and intent of those involved in fundraising, donating, and reporting donations.

As these matters are now with the Police, the Electoral Commission will not be commenting further.

I blogged a few days ago that there was almost no doubt that electoral donation laws had been broken, and the only question was which ones.

This is a very significant statement. The Electoral Commission could have just said these matters need further investigation. But they have categorically stated it is their belief that donation returns from NZ First broke the law. The job of the Police is to work out who is responsible.

Basically NZ First were running a scheme to launder their donors through their foundation, and it has been declared illegal by the Electoral Commission.

Will the Prime Minister suspend the Deputy Prime Minister as he is now under Police investigation? Of course not.