Hubbard says wife shamed at checkout

Allan Hubbard. Photo / Supplied

Troubled South Island financier Allan Hubbard claims his wife, Jean, was unable to buy groceries worth $23 when he was first put into statutory management.

Mr Hubbard, 82, who is thought to be worth half a billion dollars and the South Island's richest man, told TV3 last night: "The groceries came to $23 and my wife only had $20 so she took three items totalling $3 out of her supermarket basket and put them back on the shelf."

Last month, the Government took the rare step of appointing statutory managers to Aorangi Securities, seven charitable trusts and the business interests of Mr and Mrs Hubbard.

The couple have engaged top law firm Russell McVeagh to challenge the move.

Mr Hubbard told TV3 it was disgusting and humiliating to be kicked out of his office, have his mail opened and incoming cheques seized.

He has called for a royal commission of inquiry into the way he and his wife have been treated.

He told One News: "I would like my name vindicated, because my name has been linked with fraud."

Mr Hubbard also questioned the motivation behind freezing his business affairs and personal accounts under statutory management.

"The Government was under pressure because all these people had got away with so much money. When my name came up, they thought: 'Well, let's give him the works'. They picked the wrong fella."

Mr Hubbard also questioned the role of the Serious Fraud Office in the investigation, saying it was unusual that the head of the SFO went to Timaru at the start of the case.

"You'd think he'd have something more urgent to do but he obviously formed the view that he'd caught NZ's arch criminal gang."

Asked by TV3 what the SFO had caught, Mr Hubbard said: "'A raspberry, I would say."

He said he felt for investors who needed payments from his frozen fund. "It makes me feel terrible. If I had any cash stacked in the backyard I'd dig it up, but unfortunately I don't have any."

Serious Fraud Office director Adam Feeley said Mr Hubbard's personal finances were nothing to do with his agency.

"What he can and cannot spend is a matter for the statutory managers to decide."

In response to Mr Hubbard's claims that the SFO should have more urgent business, Mr Feeley said his office had strong grounds to investigate him.

"Four weeks in, what we've seen so far shows us that the investigation is warranted."

This week, statutory managers Richard Simpson and Trevor Thornton said they had found clear evidence of links between Aorangi, Te Tua Trust and the Hubbards.

They had also become aware of another Hubbard company called Hubbard Management Funds which had complicated their investigation.

HMF was now also under statutory management. The assets and investments of the company and Aorangi had been frozen in the interim and could remain so for months.