Interpol called in for Powdergate hunt

By LIAM DANN primary industries editor

The Serious Fraud Office has called on Interpol to hunt down one of seven people charged over the $75 million "Powdergate" export scandal.

After an 18-month investigation into the alleged illegal exporting of milk powder, the SFO has charged seven people with conspiracy to defraud.

All have been given interim name suppression, at least until tomorrow.

New Zealand's largest company, Fonterra, has distanced itself from the criminal case.

The Dairy Board and dairy co-operative Kiwi - two of the three companies that merged to form Fonterra - are connected to the case.

Five of the accused appeared in the Auckland District Court last week and were remanded on bail until the trial begins on May 18.

Two others are overseas. One has been contacted and will appear within the next month, says the SFO assistant director of prosecutions, Gus Andree Wiltens. The whereabouts of the other was unknown and Interpol had been asked to help with the hunt, he said.

The SFO alleges that 700 tonnes of dairy product was mislabelled as animal feed and exported without proper documentation and outside the statutory regime set down by the Dairy Board at the time.

It is understood the SFO values that product at more than $75 million.

The SFO alleges that the dairy product was exported on 270 separate occasions through a small intermediary company.

At the time the Dairy Board set strict limits on the amount of premium product companies were allowed to export.

The exporting occurred in the lead-up to the merger of the Dairy Board, Kiwi Dairies and Dairy Group, which formed Fonterra in 2001.

Fonterra said yesterday that only one of the accused was still working for the company. That person had been suspended without pay.