Revealed: Bay man held over $75b fraud

THE Tauranga man accused of being part of a $75 billion overseas fraud conspiracy can today be named as Bryan Archer, who played a pivotal role in the city's downtown Edgewater upgrade.
Bryan Walter Archer, 59, whose colourful past included an attempted bombing of his car while he was Edgewater project manager, was to reappear in Tauranga District Court today in an effort to get bail.
Archer appeared in court for the first time yesterday after a warrant was issued by a British court seeking to extradite him. The alleged fraud involves forged large denomination English banknotes purported to be part of an old Nationalist Chinese stash.
Six people, including Australian lawyer Ross Cowie, 62, are on trial in London's Southwark Crown Court over the fraud. They have all pleaded not guilty to one charge of conspiring to defraud the bank. They are accused of possessing more than $400 million when caught but the total fraud is believed to have totalled $75b.
Archer, who is semi-retired, was arrested at an Avenues address and was remanded in custody last night pending today's bail hearing.
Detective Sergeant Darryl Brazier said police will oppose his bail request given the strong flight risk Archer poses.
"We would not want Mr Archer to do a runner before the extradition proceedings are finalised."
Mr Brazier said in terms of the extradition request, Archer can only argue the process, as no arguments around the strength of the evidence against him can be heard in a New Zealand court.
That means Archer would have to put forward a strong argument to challenge the extradition request, he said.
Prosecutors say the scam began when Mr Cowie emailed the Bank of England claiming he acted for six former Chinese nationalist officials aged between 109 and 116 who wanted to exchange the money for modern notes.
Archer is no a stranger to controversy and appeared in a recent television news bulletin as one of the hunters who had become suspicious about apparent para-military activity by Maori training in the Urewera National Park.
He was sighted as recently as two weeks ago in Tauranga when he was seen looking relaxed in the company of a woman in a downtown arcade.
Efforts by the Bay of Plenty Times to talk to Archer last week were unsuccessful.
Tracked down to his home in the Avenues, an elderly woman who answered the door denied he lived there but a neighbour confirmed it was the correct address and said they had last seen Archer three days earlier.
One of his acquaintances, Tony Murton, said Archer had "disappeared off the face of the earth" six or eight weeks ago.
Mr Murton said he had no doubt that Archer was the man police had been looking for. The subject of the Nationalist Chinese riches had been mentioned once when he talked about being involved with a group.
"It is definitely the right man - I would be guarded if I wasn't sure of it."
He said Archer's involvement with the group had led to several overseas trips in the last 12 months.
Another acquaintance of Archer, Tauranga builder Selwyn Watson, said he did not really understand what it was all about.
"I don't think he maliciously set out to do what has happened ... I don't think he realised what it was."
Mr Watson understands Archer was introduced to a member of the group in Hong Kong and he believed the riches were genuine.
Another Tauranga man has strong memories of Archer because of an investment scheme that failed to deliver.
He said Archer promoted an American-based scheme to Tauranga investors which ended up being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.
The man, who did not want to be named, said dozens of Bay people lost a lot of money, although he ended up recovering 60c in the dollar.
"I don't think he [Archer] was left with much more than his shirt.
"Whether he knew it was a scam is debatable because he had set up a charitable trust to help the Pacific's impoverished nations."