Luther Toleafoa is in custody awaiting sentencing after being convicted of large-scale drug dealing centred in Rotorua and money laundering.
Paula Toleafoa has told the jury if she knew the money had come from methamphetamine dealing, she would have left her husband but the Crown has produced evidence of Facebook posts that showed the couple were still together, even after Luther Toleafoa's arrest and subsequent conviction.
Paula Toleafoa explained the posts as being "a business brand" for her Ruff Diamonds NZ online jewellery business.
Crown prosecutor Anna McConachy today took Paula Toleafoa through bank statements between 2016 and 2018 where she suggested she was staying in Rydges Hotel and Regal Palms, both in Rotorua, on various occasions.
She said on the same dates as the hotel stays, she was depositing large amounts of cash into some of the 31 different bank accounts belonging to the couple and their businesses.
McConachy said it was fact following Luther Toleafoa's conviction that he was dealing drugs from those hotels and she suggested to Paula Toleafoa that she knew what was going on and was subsequently banking the cash from those drug deals while staying at the hotels.
At times she would deposit large amounts immediately after each other and on one occasion she made four deposits within minutes of each other, $600 to her personal account and three different transactions to her husband's house washing business account of $920, $485 and $600.
Paula accepted it was likely her making the deposits but said she understood the money came from her husband's house washing business.
McConachy spent time taking Paula Toleafoa through banking records that showed a contract her husband held for washing houses in Auckland that was paying him amounts of no more than $600 at a time.
McConachy pointed out there were no other online transactions after that contract ended in May 2016.
Paula Toleafoa said her husband was definitely working as he would come home with amounts of more than $1000 in cash from washing houses.
She said she didn't think it was unusual to have so much cash despite signing a document for insurance for his business that recorded his yearly income was only $48,000.
Paula Toleafoa said the trips overseas were usually Luther Toleafoa's way of "love bombing" her after he had been abusive and she went along with it. She said she would have preferred to have spent the money on buying a house in Auckland.
She said her husband would pay for the trips himself using cash he earned from his house washing business.
But McConachy took Paula Toleafoa through a series of receipts police seized that showed they were paid for in cash "received from Paula Toleafoa", "Paula Te Kiri" (her maiden name) or "P Trainor" (her previous married name).
Paula Toleafoa said she had no idea why her name was on the receipts as it was her husband who paid for the trips with his cash.
McConachy asked whether it was a coincidence that at least three staff members from the Flight Centre could have got those receipts wrong.
She also suggested to Paula Toleafoa that she used cash for most of her spending, pointing to bank statements that showed no living-expense purchases, such as coffees, food and groceries, for the five months between May 2016 and October 2016.
"It must have occurred to you there was a lot of cash going around," McConachy said.
In response, Paula Toleafoa said: "It wasn't foreign to me."
McConachy also asked Paula Toleafoa if she accepted that by 2018 she and her husband were "living it up" and asked her what cars they drove at the time of her husband's arrest in December 2018.
Paula Toleafoa said she drove a "tough-looking" Chrysler 300C and her husband drove a Hummer. After questioning she said there were a couple of Harley Davidson motorcycles, "definitely a number of Range Rovers" but when McConachy suggested they also had a Dodge vehicle, she couldn't recall that.
McConachy reiterated to Paula Toleafoa it was a situation where her husband had recorded income of $48,000 yet the spending didn't add up.
"Is it your evidence that you considered that all the fancy cars, all the nice holidays and the cash you were depositing was from totally legitimate sources from washing and painting houses?"
Her response was: "I absolutely thought the money was coming from legitimate sources."
McConachy took her through a range of cash purchases at Harvey Norman, Strandbags, Pascoes, Michael Hill Jewellery and Big Save Furniture where there were receipts in Paula Toleafoa's name.
On every occasion she said she didn't know why the receipts were in her name, but suggested it was likely because she did all the talking with the salespeople, while it was Luther Toleafoa who paid the cash.
McConachy queried her about her evidence that she made cash selling bags and sunglasses.
Paula Toleafoa said she would buy and sell Versace, Dior and Louis Vuitton bags on Marketplace and Trade Me.
When asked if she had proof of those transactions, she said she didn't.
When McConachy put it to her she was the one who was banking the methamphetamine money, she replied: "Absolutely never, never, never."
The trial, which is before Judge Phillip Cooper, continues.
