New Zealand company linked to $113m UK tax money-laundering probe

The UK's National Crime Agency alleged an international network, including a New Zealand company, laundered $113 million of unpaid taxes that ended up in bank accounts in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Photo / Getty Images

A four-year tussle in United Kingdom courts looking into the alleged laundering of nine figures of unpaid tax heard a New Zealand-registered company was involved and listed the controller of the network as having an Auckland residential address.

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) filed civil proceedings in 2020 alleging Gregory Candy-Wallace controlled a network of 13 companies that helped divert $113 million of tax payments due to UK tax authorities through a complex network that largely led to bank accounts in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The 2020 case alleged an “organised crime group” had offered outsourced services to third parties that failed to pay tax authorities and sought to recover funds laundered through entities controlled by Candy-Wallace.

The civil case was due to go to trial in July 2024 but was settled weeks before beginning, with Candy-Wallace and the companies agreeing to forfeit $13m held in bank accounts and a UK property owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands.

New Zealand company Amoeba Holdings was one of 13 entities named by the NCA as being involved in allegedly laundering proceeds.

Amoeba was incorporated on the New Zealand Companies Register in December 2015, with Candy-Wallace and his local associate, William Paul Saxby Candy, better known as Bill Candy, as directors and shareholders.

Candy-Wallace resigned as director in September 2016 and by March 2018, his majority shareholding had been totally transferred to Candy, who remains the company’s sole shareholder.

Approaches to Candy-Wallace and Candy were responded to by Auckland lawyer Michael Thomas. Thomas said Candy was Candy-Wallace’s former father-in-law and was now 86.

Thomas said Candy-Wallace firmly denied any wrongdoing and stressed that the NCA proceedings were only civil.

“Various entities and persons, including Mr Candy-Wallace and Amoeba, settled a civil case with the regulators in the United Kingdom in July 2024. For the avoidance of doubt, Mr Candy-Wallace has not been arrested, charged, prosecuted or convicted for any criminal matters in the United Kingdom or elsewhere,” Thomas said.

Amoeba was said by the NCA to own a property in York, over which a freezing order was first granted in April 2019.

Amoeba also purchased real estate in New Zealand, some while Candy-Wallace was a shareholder, although these properties were not cited in the NCA case.

In 2016, Amoeba paid $1.1m for a home in Shelly Park, which was offloaded the following year for $1.2m.

In 2018, the company also purchased a commercial unit in Avondale for $300,000 and a residential property in Cockle Bay for $950,000. Property records indicate Amoeba remains the owner of these properties.

Candy and Candy-Wallace are also partners in a number of New Zealand companies, but outside of Amoeba, these were not named in NCA proceedings.

Candy and Candy-Wallace both have shareholdings in ACM Environmental Services, FM Group and 846361. Candy remains a director of these companies, while Candy-Wallace resigned his directorships in 2016.

The New Zealand Companies Office said it “continues to assess” the NCA proceedings and whether they disqualify Candy-Wallace from directing or managing New Zealand companies.

A Half-Moon Bay address listed in 2020 UK court filings for Candy-Wallace was occupied by tenants who told the Herald they had no idea who Candy-Wallace was, but men in suits had visited the property around six months ago also seeking his whereabouts.

The tenants said they had resided at the address for a year. They knew the previous tenants, who had lived there for a number of years prior and were also not Candy-Wallace.

Another address listed as a shareholder contact for Candy-Wallace turned out to be a residential property owned by Ameoba. A man living at the address declined to give his name, said he did not know Candy-Wallace and declined to answer questions about whether he knew Candy.

Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism – including twice being named Reporter of the Year – and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting from business newspapers and national magazines.