The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) searched document destruction bins from the house of a prominent Wellington Maori leader as it investigated an allegedly fraudulent property deal, a court has been told.
Ngatata Love has has his name suppression lifted. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Sir Ngatata Love, former head of the Wellington Tenths Trust, is before the High Court charged with fraudulently receiving $1.8 million in return for favouring an Auckland company's bid to create a development on some of the trust's land.
However, a lawyer for the defence said the Serious Fraud Office's theory in the case was wrong.
SFO investigator Shane Mannix told the court his office directed the document destruction company to hold bins being delivered from Sir Ngatata's property.
He said investigators went through the bins looking for any material relevant to the investigation and seven boxes of documents were taken to Auckland for further investigation.
They contained more than 11,000 documents.
Mr Mannix said an email was found in the document destruction bins from Sir Ngatata's partner, Lorraine Skiffington, discussing prospective developments at Pipitea Street and Lambton Quay in Wellington.
Mr Mannix said in the document Ms Skiffington said some degree of clarity was needed about matters connected with the deal.
"We obviously have to talk about access/upfront fees as Ngatata discussed earlier. He's expecting to see a significant chunk of resourcing upfront to kickstart projects at our end. This can be integrated into a final profit share".
Mr Mannix said there were similar references in emails sent by her in February 2008 and also many references to needing capital upfront.
Defence lawyer Colin Carruthers QC put it to Mr Mannix that payments made under a services agreement between the developers and Ms Skiffington could have no possible effect on the Tenths Trust.
The witness said that would be correct if looking at just one document in isolation but the SFO's theory was not based on that one document alone.
The SFO also obtained meeting minutes from the Tenths Trust and looked through them to see if there was any mention of the involvement of the defendant's son, Matene Love, in the development.
Mr Mannix said Mr Love was not mentioned, nor was his company Yellowstone Consultants. Neither was Ms Skiffington or her company, Pipitea Street Developments.
He said there was also reference to Ms Skiffington's appointment to a statutory body looking after Māori interests in the marine environment, and Sir Ngatata was identified as the person who told the Tenths Trust of her appointment.
The records also showed Ms Skiffington was appointed as an independent advisor to a Tenths Trust sub-committee looking at fisheries issues.
However there was no mention of her in relation to any of the building projects that took place, including Pipitea Street, and no mention of Pipitea Street Developments. There was also no record of her ever attending any trustee meetings.
Mr Mannix said documents taken from the Wellington Tenths Trust showed various trustees, at times, declared conflicts of interest relating to different business matters.
He said that included Sir Ngatata stepping out of decisions being made relating to Massey University, because of a conflict of interest.