Trade Me millionaire swamped by beggars

Gareth Morgan

Gareth Morgan has learned since coming into money - lots of it - that when people say "charity begins at home", they mean their own home.

Since his son Sam Morgan sold TradeMe to Fairfax and got $227 million for his share, Mr Morgan has been inundated with helpful suggestions on what "charities" his $47 million share might be spent on.

"I have had thousands and thousands of letters, and 90 per cent are basically asking for help with their mortgages. Amongst that there are some genuine, needy cases, but I wonder if New Zealanders should look at themselves hard.

"It's no wonder the Government has such a job sorting out benefits and has to employ armies to sort out the genuine cases from the freeloaders."

Mr Morgan decided when he invested in TradeMe that any money he made would go to charities.

He may not have expected to make quite so much, but as he told the Weekend Herald's Michele Hewitson last Saturday, he's sticking to his word.

He has since been shocked by the revelation that everybody wanted to roll in his millions except himself.

"I am a bit surprised at the self-centred nature of it. I invested, thinking 'that's my boy, it might make a few bucks, good on him.'

"Then we get all this carry on and I've got a life to live doing, funnily enough, looking after other people's money, which is what I enjoy.

"I want to do my motorcycle trips, and fish, so this is just a bit of a hassle for us. "

So do not bother applying directly to Mr Morgan, because his foundation will not deal directly with charities.

Mr Morgan said other charitable foundations, such as those set up by Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall, the Roy McKenzie Foundation and the Todd Foundation, would end up deciding where to spend his money.

He also wants a portion to go to Third World countries, where he has travelled extensively on his motorcycle rides.

NZ Trustees Association executive officer Errol Anderson has instead suggested Mr Morgan "should take a trip around some of our suburbs" to see why most should be spread around charities in New Zealand.

"Poverty is relative to where you are living, so our point is that if he's sending the money off-shore, I certainly hope it's money he's earning off shore."

Mr Morgan said such an attitude was "disgusting" and Mr Anderson was a "lobbyist who needs to be dropped in the streets of Calcutta."

He said it was typical of the approach taken by some charity workers who were in the game to make money.

"My advice from other well-heeled people was to watch out for provider capture. There are a lot of wide-mouthed frogs out there, all living off the hog. It's a corrupt industry, second only to insurance."

Next week he is off to America until August, on another motorcycling tour to follow up the Silk Road trip he wrote a book on. He thinks it will take a year for the money to actually start flowing.