Team NZ boss Grant Dalton said earlier today that the organisation had been defrauded by scammers, with money being paid into a Hungarian bank account.
"Some time ago I approved an invoice for a large contractor in Europe ... and, no, I did not check the noughts and the ones on the bank account. It was the correct invoice as per the contract and the money was sent to Hungary," Dalton told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking.
"Is that fraud? Yes, it is insomuch we were basically defrauded. Is it fraud in the sense it's portrayed in the paper this morning? Absolutely not. More importantly, instantly we rang MBIE, told them what had happened, told them it wasn't Government money because it wasn't, and we got straight into the fraud police ... and we've recovered some of the money.
"There was fraud insomuch that we were defrauded to an incorrect bank account. We haven't got all of the money back, we have got some of the money back.
"We were defrauded by scammers. Police don't know yet and probably will never know [who they are]. Some of the money is back. In the end ... the ultimate noughts, ones, whatever, numbers on the bank account ... weren't checked."
The loss of money was revealed in a letter obtained by the Herald, which also revealed that Team NZ and America's Cup organisers were at the centre of an inquiry commissioned by the Crown over the spending of public money, including allegations of a "reclassified" $3 million loan.
Dalton has denied there had been any $3 million loan to Team NZ, saying it was payment for work done by the organisation.
