Scam accused finally named

Malcolm Mayer. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The identity of a property developer facing fraud charges over an alleged $50 million loan scam of a company run by a former prime minister can now be revealed.

Suppression has been lifted from Malcolm Duncan Mayer who was charged by the Serious Fraud Office with 62 counts in May 2010 but whose name was kept secret for nearly 12 months.

The 55-year-old Mayer allegedly organised a scheme where he used relatives and associates as fronts to secure millions of dollars in loans from a fund management company, Trustees Executors (TEL), of which former Prime Minister Jim Bolger is the chairman.

Mayer is charged with obtaining loan sums of up to $4 million by making false finance applications and leases, or forging sale and purchase agreements, to secure funding for property developments.

Some of the charges stem from allegedly falsely inflating house values by using the illegal scheme of "hydraulicing" or jacking up prices.

The fraud charges total $47.8 million between 2003 and 2008. More than $30 million of the loans have defaulted.

A second developer named in court documents by the SFO, Nigel Turnbull, also allegedly used his relatives to secure millions of dollars in loans. He is understood to have left the country. Most of those loans have defaulted and TEL has attempted to bankrupt several of Turnbull's relatives, including his pensioner parents.

Mayer was granted interim name suppression when he first appeared in the Auckland District Court in May 2010 and this was later extended by Judge Heather Simpson until his trial. Judge Simpson accepted the submissions of defence lawyer Gary Gotlieb that suppression was justified because of earlier publicity in a Sunday newspaper and the negative consequences for Mayer, namely intimidation, that any further publicity would have. In a sworn affidavit, Mayer said he reluctantly agreed to the newspaper interview on the advice of Dermot Nottingham, a self-styled justice campaigner. The Crown now seeks to use the interview as evidence in Mayer's upcoming trial.

Crown prosecutor John Dixon, on behalf of the SFO, appealed the decision to grant suppression and successfully overturned Judge Simpson's ruling in the High Court at Auckland.

Justice Geoffrey Venning said Judge Simpson made a mistake by taking account of the "irrelevant" issue of intimidation when granting name suppression. As Mayer had participated in an early newspaper interview, Justice Venning said it was "plainly wrong" to grant suppression.

Mr Gotlieb tried to overturn the ruling but the Court of Appeal declined to grant a hearing. But Mayer then made a second application for name suppression on new grounds, which was again unsuccessfully appealed to the Court of Appeal.

"The fact is that the applicant's name is already in the public domain, an action to which he was an active and willing participant," said Justice Lyn Stevens in the Court of Appeal ruling in February.

Mayer is due to stand trial in July.