Serious Fraud Office –
Former director of MediaWeb Victor John Clarke pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court on October 6, 2015 to Crimes Act charges brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Mr Clarke faced two false accounting charges, one charge of using a forged document and one charge of obtaining by deception. The charges related to his conduct as a director of MediaWeb Limited (MediaWeb) where he was responsible for overseeing the accounting and financial aspects of the business.
The charges
MediaWeb was placed into receivership on March 5, 2014 and placed into liquidation two weeks later (March 21).
MediaWeb sold sponsorship and publications to other businesses within New Zealand. Its main source of revenue arose from an annual event celebrating business excellence for which they sold sponsorship and seats.
Mr Clarke pleaded guilty to falsifying financial statements to present a positive picture of MediaWeb’s financial position, creating fictitious entries in MediaWeb’s accounting system to obtain money from a lending institution, forging emails, and failing to disclose the true financial position of MediaWeb to obtain funding from a Trust. Mr Clarke’s offending enabled him to obtain money and access to loan facilities of approximately $2.2 million.
SFO Chief Executive Julie Read said, “Mr Clarke’s plea at this early stage of the proceedings will be a relief to witnesses and victims who would have otherwise been subjected to considerable stress in the course of a trial.”
Mr Clarke will appear for sentencing at the Auckland District Court on December 11, 2015.
Legal provisions
According to the New Zealand law, everyone is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years who, with intent to obtain by deception any property, privilege, service, pecuniary advantage, benefit, or valuable consideration, or to deceive or cause loss to any other person does the following: (a) makes or causes to be made, or concurs in the making of, any false entry in any book or account or other document required or used for accounting purposes; or (b) omits or causes to be omitted, or concurs in the omission of, any material particular from any such book or account or other document; or (c) makes any transfer of any interest in a stock, debenture, or debt in the name of any person other than the owner of that interest.
Forging documents
Under Section 257 of the New Zealand Criminal Code, everyone is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years who, knowing a document to be forged does the following: (a) uses the document to obtain any property, privilege, service, pecuniary advantage, benefit or valuable consideration (b) uses, deals with, or acts upon the document as if it were genuine (c) causes any other person to use, deal with, or act upon it as if it were genuine.
Serious Fraud Office Press Release
