KEY POINTS:
Former Kiwis rugby league captain Richie Barnett has been caught up in a business deal with an Iraqi immigration fraudster.
Mr Barnett's company recently sold a Fishmonger fish-and-chip-shop franchise to a man called John Joseph.
But Joseph is actually Salam Mansoor Abdelabbas Al-Bawi, sentenced in March to six
months' home detention after admitting fraudulently using the Joseph identity to get New Zealand residency, citizenship and a passport.
Despite this, Al-Bawi used the Joseph identity a fortnight later to register a company to buy the franchise in Birkenhead.
Mr Barnett, who met "John", told the Herald the revelation of his dual identity was a surprise.
"He's a hard worker, the bloke. When this came up, we just went, 'Holy jeez - what's going on here?'
"He's enthusiastic, a damn hard worker and everything he's said has been spot on. We couldn't believe it."
Mr Barnett said he was "blown away" when he read reports last week that Al-Bawi withdrew US$76,000 ($98,864) and returned to Iraq in 2005, which court documents say raised police fears of "insurgency, terrorism". Al-Bawi had come to New Zealand in 2000 on a false passport, saying he had been accused of a terrorist killing of an Iraqi security official in 1999, tortured until he admitted it and sentenced to death but managed to escape.
But the documents show police investigations established him as Al-Bawi and found he had left Iraq in 1995 for Denmark. He had a Danish violence conviction he did not declare on arrival in New Zealand.
Mr Barnett, who played for Cronulla and the Sydney Roosters, said the matter was now being dealt with by lawyers but he was keen to hear Al-Bawi's side of the story.
Mr Barnett is a director-shareholder of The Fishmonger, which has a chain of five franchised "seafood delicatessen" chain stores in Auckland.
Companies Office records list John Joseph as the sole shareholder and director of "Bawi Ltd".
A Companies Office spokeswoman was unable to respond before the Herald's deadline to questions about how Al-Bawi had been able to register the company as Joseph.
The spokeswoman said anyone who knowingly made a false or misleading statement during the company incorporation process committed an offence under the Companies Act, and if convicted the penalty was imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of up to $200,000.
The Department of Internal Affairs is investigating Al-Bawi's citizenship.
Al-Bawi's lawyer, Richard McLeod, said John Joseph was his "legally registered second name in Iraq" and there were documents to prove it.
