A respected JP and accountant has admitted his role in an international fraud that siphoned $1.8 million from 12 investment scam victims.
However, despite the plea, no conviction has been entered because his lawyer says Karaka pensioner Suren Sharma intends to apply for a discharge without conviction.
Sharma worked as a registered Inland Revenue Department (IRD) tax agent and is the director and shareholder of multiple companies.
He has denied wrongdoing since his arrest in January last year and was due to go to trial next week.
But Sharma now faces up to seven years in jail after pleading guilty on Friday to money laundering.
The justice of the peace declined to comment on his guilty plea when approached by the Herald outside the Auckland District Court today.
On whether he had any messages for his victims, Sharma said: “I think that will happen when [I] see the judge the next time”.
The 74-year-old used his bank accounts to help offshore criminals steal nearly $1.8m from a dozen Kiwi investors who believed their money was being secured in term deposits or government-backed bonds.
Sharma claimed he never met the victims, but had received signed contracts and passport details from them via a third party in Australia, authorising him to invest their money in Bitcoin.
Before his arrest, he was caught in a secret recording telling a private investigator his BNZ bank account had been frozen because of “suspicious activity”.
But he claimed he did not know the money landing in his account was stolen and insisted he was not a party to any fraud.
“I don’t have the money,” Sharma told the investigator.
“I can, in all honesty and sincerity, explain to you that I am not involved.”
One of Sharma’s victims, Deepak Udhani, lost $100,000 to the scam in June 2023.
Although he welcomed Sharma’s guilty plea, describing him as a selfish criminal and “heartless swine”, he was horrified at the indication that Sharma was planning to apply for a discharge without conviction.
“It shows what sort of person this guy is,” Udhani said.
“He’s a man of no ethics and moral values.”
He said he prayed that Sharma would live for another “hundred years” so he could see the suffering of Udhani’s family as a result of the offending.
Udhani said he had not recovered a single dollar of his life savings and did not believe Sharma would make good with any reparation.
He hoped the judge would send Sharma to jail for the full seven years.
“I have got no trust in this person. Right from day one, he has been a blatant liar.
“He’s a heartless creature. He will put up a [payment] plan and not pay us. I would rather see him behind bars.”
Udhani believed Sharma had stashed the stolen money away “for a rainy day” and said the offending had taken a terrible toll on him and his family.
While glad that Sharma would now face justice, Udhani said he was concerned the man who played a key role in a large-scale fraud had been able to continue working as an accountant and taxation agent, despite facing serious criminal charges.
The Herald asked the IRD whether Sharma was still a taxation agent, but a spokeswoman refused to comment, citing privacy provisions in the Tax Administration Act.
Sharma has been a justice of the peace since the 1980s, when he was recommended for the position by former Manurewa MP Sir Roger Douglas.
He fought to keep his name secret for 16 months, arguing he was “duped” by the criminal enterprise, and that his reputation and accountancy business would both be destroyed if he was identified.
Additionally, Sharma told the court his mental health was at risk and he would struggle to pay rent and provide for his family if his taxation work dried up and he was forced to rely on the pension.
“It would feel like a dagger through my heart for my name to be published before I have the chance to defend these allegations,” Sharma told a judge earlier this year.
But after the Herald and Crown opposed Sharma’s bid for secrecy, a judge lifted suppression in May, ruling that the public’s interest in knowing Sharma’s character outweighed his own.
His extensive business background and standing as a JP trumped his right to continued anonymity, the court ruled.
Police said Sharma acted as a “money mule” for the offshore criminal syndicate.
After the money landed in Sharma’s bank accounts, he “remitted the proceeds of crime to scammers” in return for a commission, a summary of facts states.
The money was transferred overseas or used to purchase cryptocurrency. Most of it was never recovered.
According to the summary of facts for the court, Sharma received $1,865,099 into accounts he controlled and gained a personal benefit of around $101,484.
The offending occurred between November 2022 and October 2023.
“Mr Sharma legitimised the scams by providing his New Zealand bank accounts to receive the proceeds of the crimes,” the document said.
In an affidavit filed soon after his arrest, Sharma said he’d worked as an IRD tax agent since 1996 – “a position of trust and responsibility”.
He denied any wrongdoing, saying he never met or had any contact with the victims or the individuals who carried out the scam.
He claimed he acted as an agent for World Initiative AG Alliance Pty Ltd (WIAG), receiving instructions from the company’s former director by email or WhatsApp messaging.
Sharma said WIAG or companies associated with it had agreements with each victim to invest their money into Bitcoin.
Sharma claimed he would receive copies of each investor’s contract and passport, along with confirmation of their address for anti-money laundering purposes, “when each of them paid money into a bank account controlled by me”.
The affidavit says Sharma only learned of the scam when private investigator Nick Mayer visited his Karaka home in October 2023 after being hired by Udhani to track his stolen $100,000.
Sharma said he explained to Mayer he’d had no dealings with Udhani and provided Mayer with copies of relevant documents, including an apparent investor agreement provided by WIAG.
“Unknown to me, Nick Mayer had secretly recorded our conversation on his mobile phone and later published a damaging article in the Herald ... which included a video with my voice as recorded.”
Sharma said he “legitimately received money” from the listed victims into his bank accounts.
“I then disposed of that money by converting it to Bitcoin investments as instructed. That was the instructions of the clients.”
Crown prosecutor Pip McNabb said by receiving fraud proceeds into his NZ accounts and transferring the money overseas, Sharma “legitimised the scam”.
As a trained accountant and tax expert, Sharma should have a “thorough understanding of the law and obligations to not engage in money laundering”, McNabb said.
The public and anyone dealing with Sharma were likely to have a “high degree of trust” in him due to his knowledge and experience.
“This trust comprises an expectation that Mr Sharma be vigilant as to the provenance of finances and where they are eventually transferred.”
Sharma’s guilty plea to engaging in money laundering was heard by Judge Steve Bonnar, KC.
Judge Bonnar granted Sharma bail and scheduled his sentencing for January next year.
Lane Nichols is Auckland desk editor for the New Zealand Herald with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry.
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