Nate Nauer shortly after he was first charged in 2019. Photo: NZ Herald / Sam Hurley
The Auckland media personality who helped launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug money for the Comancheros was former Mai FM morning host Nate Nauer.
He was sentenced on Wednesday in the Auckland District Court alongside his co-offenders Yonghao Huang, a car-dealer, and Vetekina Naufahu, brother of the gang's New Zealand president. Nauer and Huang pleaded guilty to six charges of money laundering and Naufahu to two.
The trio had interim name suppression but this lifted at sentencing.
It can also now be revealed Nauer was the same media personality who was charged with money laundering and participating in an organised criminal group as part of Operation Nova. The charges were dropped against him at trial due to insufficient evidence.
His lawyer Ron Mansfield said the fact he was on bail for the Operation Nova charges meant he lost his successful media career and his friends. He ended up isolated, using drugs every day and with only criminals for friends, Mansfield said.
Judge Nevin Dawson sentenced Nauer to two years, nine months imprisonment on all charges to be served concurrently. The sentence took into account a discount for his guilty pleas and his previous good character.
Naufahu was jailed for two years four months and Huang to two years eight months.
They all laundered Comancheros drug money through the cash purchases of luxury cars and, in one instance for Naufahu, calf implants.
Early in 2020 Nauer was suddenly absent from the Mai Morning Crew after 10 years with the station.
A post on the Mediaworks-owned Mai FM website at the time said he had left to "focus on spending time with family and other career opportunities".
Patched Comanchero member Naufahu and Huang were arrested in a 2020 police sting that seized more than $650,000 worth of assets including five luxury cars, one of them a limited edition G-Class Mercedes Benz worth $275,000.
A police investigation into the Comanchero motorcycle gang's money laundering operations, dubbed Operation Rider, began in late 2019 after another operation called Nova.
Police said the operation involved staff from the National Organised Crime Group and Northern Asset Recovery Unit.
Court documents show the men knew they were laundering cash made from dealings in Class A controlled drugs.
Naufahu laundered nearly $100,000 over almost two years, used to pay a substantial portion of his weekly rent of $930.
He bought the limited-edition Mercedes Benz and also paid some $16,000 in cash for cosmetic surgery.
Nauer laundered $420,000 mainly used to pay for four cars - an Audi, two BMWs and a Mercedes Benz.
A summary of facts showed the man laundered the cash, which he and the car dealer referred to as "noodles" by making part payments on the cars.
He asked the car dealer to keep them registered under his business' name to hide the true ownership.
This story was originally published on the New Zealand Herald.