KEY POINTS:
A Tauranga man accused of being part of a $75 billion fraud conspiracy on the Bank of England was today named.
Bryan Walter Archer, 59, was to reappear in Tauranga District Court today in an effort to get bail.
Archer appeared in court for the first time yesterday
after a warrant was issued by a British court seeking to extradite him.
The alleged fraud involves forged large denomination English banknotes purported to be part of an old Nationalist Chinese stash.
Six people, including Australian lawyer Ross Cowie, 62, are on trial in London's Southwark Crown Court over the fraud. They have all pleaded not guilty to one charge of conspiring to defraud the bank. They are accused of possessing more than $400 million when caught but the total fraud is believed to have totalled $75 billion.
Archer, who is semi- retired, was arrested at an Avenues address and was remanded in custody last night pending today's bail hearing.
Detective Sergeant Darryl Brazier said police will oppose his bail request given the strong flight risk Archer poses.
"We would not want Mr Archer to do a runner before the extradition proceedings are finalised."
Mr Brazier said in terms of the extradition request, Archer can only argue the process, as no arguments around the strength of the evidence against him can be heard in a New Zealand court.
That means Archer would have to put forward a strong argument to challenge the extradition request, he said.
Prosecutors say the scam began when Mr Cowie emailed the Bank of England claiming he acted for six former Chinese nationalist officials aged between 109 and 116 who wanted to exchange the money for modern notes.
Archer is no a stranger to controversy and appeared in a recent television news bulletin as one of the hunters who had become suspicious about apparent para- military activity by Maori training in the Urewera National Park.
He was sighted as recently as two weeks ago in Tauranga when he was seen looking relaxed in the company of a woman in a downtown arcade.
Efforts by the Bay of Plenty Times to talk to Archer last week were unsuccessful.
Tracked down to his home in the Avenues, an elderly woman who answered the door denied he lived there but a neighbour confirmed it was the correct address and said they had last seen Archer three days earlier.
One of his acquaintances, Tony Murton, said Archer had "disappeared off the face of the earth" six or eight weeks ago.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES