His first report showed creditors included the Accident Compensation Corporation, Inland Revenue, Portage Rd-based water cooler business Big Blue, Canon New Zealand, Greenlane’s Toyota Finance, UDC Finance of victoria St West, Lease 2 Go, Message 4U, One NZ, Rothbury Insurance, Smarty Payroll, Spark NZ, Adobe and Aon Insurance.
A Tesla 3 financed by UDC had gone to Turner Auctions.
Investigations were being made into a Porsche Cayenne, also financed by UDC.
Pages of the names of employees are also in Patel’s report, along with companies they were contracted to work with: Trugene Laboratories, FT Logistics, Westpac Mussels, Moana New Zealand, All Office Furniture, BBMY Farms, a cafe, Forty Thieves/Nut Butters, Neat Meat and Paramount were third party firms which ProLink employees were contracted to, Patel’s report said.
ProLink NZ is projected to have a $3.8m deficit but owes all creditors $4.01m because debts are slightly offset by some assets including $73,000 in a bank account and $61,000 held by a director, the report said.
Total assets were listed at $134,000.
Inland Revenue is owed $2.4m, Patel’s statement said.
Patel was concerned about the workers and said he sent them letters giving advice about where to turn to for help.
“I’ve arranged a Chinese-speaking lawyer to assist them with their visas and immigration. I’ve also contacted Rotary at Botany Downs to organise food parcels. This is so sad, just before Christmas,” he said last month.
He attached a Rotary letter confirming all ProLink NZ employees would get “at no cost, some basic food items given the prediction you are currently facing with your employer going into liquidation”.
In 2017, the Herald reported ProLink director Haiyan (Shirley) Luo was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges brought under the Immigration Act and Tax Administration Act.
She used fake birth documents to bring a child here from China and three companies evaded $423,000 in taxes.
A spokeswoman for Immigration New Zealand said the agency had received complaints about ProLink NZ for several months.
Patel said the company specialised in hiring Asian immigrants and supplied them to New Zealand companies.
“It rapidly grew its workforce after it won the contract to supply workers to pack goods for a large online food catering company,” he said, referring to My Food Bag.
In December 2023, the company’s relationship with My Food Bag was suspended, coinciding with the start of the Immigration New Zealand investigation.
But it lost contracts to supply labour.
Four months before the liquidation, all labour contracts were cancelled because ProLink’s accredited employer status with Immigration NZ was suspended.
Immigration NZ began investigations into ProLink in August 2023 and finally the company’s accreditation status lapsed, Patel noted.
“The company is being subjected to an investigation by Immigration NZ relating to its accredited employer status,” he wrote.
Several ProLink employees had now engaged employment relations advocates and lawyers to take claims against the company.
Patel said he would ensure Immigration NZ had the required documents and information.
A second report will be issued in six months, giving further updates on ProLink NZ.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
