Removal order likely for Trinity Hill investor after US fraud

Charles Banks now faces the possibility of a 20 year jail term. Photo / Paul Taylor

The man who engineered an American buy-in of Hawke's Bay winery Trinity Hill could have to relinquish the interest after admitting a fraud charge in the US.

Charles Banks, majority shareholder of Terroir Capital LLC, managers of the Terroir Winery Fund, which took a majority shareholding in Gimblett Gravels winery Trinity Hill in 2014, now faces the possibility of up to 20 years in jail.

But, while Mr Banks' status with Trinity Hill is now being questioned by the Overseas Investment Office, Trinity Hill chief executive officer Michael Henley is hopeful there will be no impact on the running of the winery, which is now 20 years old.

While Mr Banks told Hawke's Bay Today in 2015 he intended coming to Hawke's Bay 3-4 times a year, he has no "day-to-day" involvement, having stood down from the board, with Terroir now represented by chief executive officer Kevin McGee.

In the US, a Terroir statement said the company was not implicated, and Mr Henley said: "It depends how the OIO sees it. Of course if it decided Terroir was of not good character it would be devastating for Trinity Hill."

That is considered unlikely, the OIO - which approved the investment at the end of 2014 - saying in a statement yesterday it is unlikely to now consider Mr Banks of the good character required to for him to remain "an individual with control of sensitive land in New Zealand."

A condition of the consent required "individuals with control" of the Terroir Winery Fund (including Banks) to remain of good character, the OIO said. In light of Banks' guilty plea, the OIO is considering whether Banks remains of good character, it said.

In the US, he will no longer be able to manage any wineries, but according to one US report, he won't have to sell his US wine interests. But it was not clear whether he could continue to manage South African winery Mulderbosch, acquired in 2010 as one of the former financial adviser to the stars' first ventures in the wine industry.

On Monday the 48-year-old Mr Banks pleaded guilty to one charge of "wire fraud," related to a multi-million-dollar deception of now-retired NBA and US basketball star Tim Duncan about an investment in a sports clothing firm.

According to reports Duncan accused Mr Banks of persuading him to make a $7.5 million loan to Gameday, a company Banks controlled, in 2012. It was to be repaid over five years at 12 per cent interest but Duncan claimed Gameday failed to make the payments.

Duncan played almost 20 years of NBA basketball, several times being among the top 10 on the pay-list with annual earnings over US$20 million. Duncan also won an Olympic Games bronze medal with the US national team.

Yesterday's statement said the OIO "has met with Terroir Winery Fund's representatives to make it clear that in our view Mr Banks is unlikely to meet his on-going obligation to remain of good character. If Mr Banks is not of good character, then we will seek to have him to be removed as an individual with control of sensitive land in New Zealand".

When assessing good character among other elements the OIO looks at "offences or contraventions of the law", the statement said.

Mr Banks is on bail of US$1 million awaiting sentence on June 27, and US sources consider him likely to be imprisoned, though not for the for anything close to the maximum sentence.

He does, however, also face a lawsuit which could also end his career as a financial adviser.

Mr Banks told Hawke's Bay Today in 2015 his interest in Trinity Hill dated back to a visit to Hawke's Bay three years earlier, although he had been in the region previously, in 2001.