Businessman facing 100 fraud counts

A Hawke's Bay businessman being investigated by Internal Affairs is to face multiple fraud charges brought by ACC in the Palmerston North District Court.
Christopher Shayne Sullivan, 42, of Taradale, who faces more than 100 counts of using a document to obtain a pecuniary advantage, will appear before the court on March 21 at a depositions hearing, which is expected to last nine days.
The department of Internal Affairs has confirmed it is investigating Mr Sullivan's connections to the Hastings-based Century Foundation, which was last week accused of failing to give grants to bona fide organisations by Havelock North fundraiser Jessica Maxwell.
Mr Sullivan, who is believed to have a share in the Brazen Head in Napier and the Thirsty Whale in Ahuriri, was once New Zealand distributor for the Australian based Stargames Corporation and was one of the first people to import gaming machines into New Zealand and sell them to pub charities through his business NZ Gaming Ltd.
He was involved in running the Hawke's Bay pubs with Keith Price, the former police detective who arrested Teresa Cormack's killer Jules Mikus.
Part of the new Pettigrew Arena, in Taradale, was named the Chris Sullivan SportsHouse after Mr Sullivan bought naming rights to it. Three squash courts also carry his name.
When Hawke's Bay Today rang Mr Sullivan's cellphone yesterday Mr Price answered the phone and said Mr Sullivan was now in Picton.
Asked what he knew about the probe, Mr Price said: "I really can't help you very much."
Mr Price, who is not being investigated, refused to answer questions about his links with Mr Sullivan but said he would tell him the newspaper wanted to talk to him. Mr Sullivan did not return Hawke's Bay Today's calls.
Century Foundation chairman Peter Dennehy, said Internal Affairs had contacted the foundation between two and three years ago asking for records of the transaction in which the foundation bought gaming machines from Mr Sullivan.
The transaction was the only connection he could think of that linked that two.
"He's (Chris Sullivan) never been to any of our meetings and has had no involvement, whatsoever, in the running of our board," Mr Dennehy said. "I would not know what he looked like."
Internal Affairs director of gaming and censorship regulation Keith Manch confirmed that Internal Affairs was in the throes of a major investigation.
"When you have got somebody who appears to have involvement in different facets of the gaming sector, that requires questions," Mr Manch said.
The investigation also includes a probe into the way gaming money, raised by pokie machines, had been used, he said. "There can sometimes be questions about whether the money is going to all the right places."
Australian-based Stargames spokesman Mark Gardiner said his company had cut all ties with Mr Sullivan in 2003 after Mr Sullivan notched up a $200,000 debt against Stargames.