South Canterbury Finance Criminal Prosecution – Forensic Experts retained by Defence
This criminal prosecution was trumpeted by the SFO as the biggest fraud in New Zealand corporate history with the alleged offending said to be in the order of $1.7 billion. We were retained by all five defendants to provide our full range of forensic skills. All five defendants pleaded not guilty.
At the conclusion of the trial, four of the five defendants had been acquitted on all counts. No one was convicted on the so-called $1.6 billion "biggest fraud in NZ" charge, nor on theft charges of $25m, $39m and $4.2m respectively, nor on false statement charges concerning amounts of $150m, $34m and ‘an understating of impairment provisions’, nor on false accounting charges concerning some $35m. Only one defendant was convicted; on five charges, four of which related to a single transaction that spanned four different prospectuses.
Our work exposed major flaws in the Crown’s case and, in particular, in the SFO’s investigation.
What we did:
We reconstructed the relevant transactions for defence counsel so as to clearly establish the underlying facts and to remove the need for defence counsel to rely on the SFO’s interpretation of events. We had to become conversant with the documentary and oral information disclosed by the Crown. Defence counsel then had the comfort of knowing that the various transactions and the available documents/oral evidence were understood by their own forensic experts and that they had reliable explanations and advice on which to plan trial strategy.
As a result of work we completed in advance of trial, defence counsel was in a position to meet with the Crown in respect of some of the alleged frauds, leading to charges against two of the five defendants not proceeding at all. We attended the pre-trial meetings with the Crown.
In conjunction with counsel we identified those Crown witnesses who needed to be interviewed by the defence before trial. We undertook those interviews and then prepared material for counsel. For most witnesses, and certainly for all major witnesses, we prepared material for counsel for use in their preparation of cross examination.
We interviewed defence witnesses and prepared briefs of evidence. We participated in the briefing of expert evidence called by the defence. We prepared schedules and spreadsheet-summaries for use by counsel in court and a Beattie Varley expert gave evidence about that material during the trial.
We provided an ongoing critique of the SFO/Crown position and of deficiencies in the SFO’s reconstruction.
We had ongoing participation in meetings with counsel (both before and during trial) dealing variously with the progress of the defence, responding to any prosecution initiatives, and assisting with defence tactics and strategy. At the request of defence counsel, we attended at court on a near daily basis.
Defence Counsel in this major litigation would be happy to discuss the detailed role and the contribution of Beattie Varley Limited.