Two charged over alleged cash kickbacks at South Auckland Maori organisations

Former Te Roopu Taurima O Manukau Trust asset manager and Te Kawerau a Maki Iwi Authority trustee Saul Brendan Roberts faces five charges under the Secret Commissions Act. Photo / File

Two people have been charged by the Serious Fraud Office over alleged cash kickbacks paid by a business supplier to a senior manager in two South Auckland Māori organisations.

Saul Brendan Roberts, the former asset manager for Te Roopu Taurima O Manukau Trust and a trustee of Te Kawerau a Maki Iwi Authority, faces five charges under the Secret Commissions Act.

The other defendant is a supplier of goods and services to Te Roopu and faces two charges under the Secret Commissions Act, one charge of theft by a person in special relationship, two of dishonestly taking or using a document and one of obtaining by deception.

The Serious Fraud Office alleges that Roberts received secret commission payments in return for contracting work to certain suppliers to Te Roopu, including businesses owned by the other defendant.

Roberts is alleged to have received a certain percentage of each invoice as a cash kickback. He is also alleged to have arranged a secret commission payment during his employment at Te Kawerau a Maki.

The pair were charged in January and given name suppression. They appeared again in the Manukau District Court today and Roberts's name suppression was lifted.

They will appear in court again on May 12.

SFO director Julie Read said, "Deliberate acts of fraud against a public health care provider and a charitable trust are completely unacceptable and a matter of huge public concern. The SFO's role is to prosecute matters on behalf of New Zealanders in order to keep public services free from corruption."

Te Roopu Taurima o Manukau grew out of the old Māngere hospital for people with intellectual disabilities and describes itself on its website as "the largest kaupapa Māori organisation in the country, providing support services for people of all ethnicities who have intellectual impairments".

It now has offices in Whangarei, Hamilton and Rangiora (Canterbury), as well as Otahuhu.

In 2014 NZ First leader Winston Peters called for an inquiry into the trust, claiming evidence of hundreds of thousands of dollars in "irregular payments" that had "crippled" the organisation.

The trust was reported to have an income of $30.6 million a year, 500 staff and 243 clients.

Peters said he had received information alleging the trust was insolvent and had "problems related to improper processes, questionable payments, doctored invoices and the employment of a former Customs officer earlier jailed for smuggling methamphetamine".

Trust chairman John Marsden resigned a few days later.

Later the trust apologised to two whistleblowers who were sacked for raising concerns about alleged misspending.

The Serious Fraud Office was reported to be investigating the trust and the Ministry of Health had sent in forensic auditors.

The two staff members who were sacked, and another who remained employed at the trust, raised personal grievances over how they were treated. They reached a confidential settlement with the trust.