The Wellington District Court has found two men guilty of charges relating to fraudulent deals amounting to $17 million.
Following four weeks of judge-alone trial, Ronald Peter Rosenberg (72) and Sydney Lio Hunt (46) now face sentencing by Judge Davidson on May 29. The defendants have been remanded on bail.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) brought 82 criminal charges against the two men after its investigation into E-Gas Limited, a retail gas supply company, of which Mr Rosenberg and Mr Hunt were respectively Managing Director and General Manager.
During the investigation, SFO investigators discovered that between April 2005 and October 2008, the two defendants deliberately under-reported the quantity of gas supplied to its retail customers by approximately 950,000 gigajoules (worth about $8.74 million, and penalties were avoided to the value of approximately $8.67 million).
SFO Chief Executive Julie Read said that serious financial crime placed a high cost on the New Zealand economy, affecting all consumers.
“The SFO will continue to focus resources on these high impact areas and we encourage the business community to be aware of any areas of risk in their industries,” she said.
