Serious Fraud Office case against Roger Pikia: High Court at Rotorua hears pre-trial matters

Roger Pikia when he first appeared in the Auckland District Court in December 2020. Photo / Alex Burton

A High Court hearing is being held in Rotorua this week for a case involving alleged serious fraud by a former Te Arawa business leader.

Roger Pikia, an influential business leader and former adviser to the Māori King, has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he fraudulently obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars from an iwi trust he once chaired.

Pikia was the chairman of Te Arawa River Iwi Trust at the time of the alleged offending.

The case is being brought to the court by the Serious Fraud Office.

A pre-trial hearing is being heard this week in the High Court at Rotorua before Justice Edwin Wylie and is expected to last until Thursday.

Details of the hearing cannot be reported by the media.

The allegations against Pikia stem from his time as chairman of the trust, known as Tarit, and its investment company Tarit Holdings Ltd between 2014 and 2016, the Serious Fraud Office has said. The trust acts to represent three iwi within the upper Waikato River catchment area.

Pikia faces charges of obtaining by deception, corrupt acceptance of gift by an agent, receiving a secret reward for procuring a contract, attempting to pervert the course of justice and conspiracy to commit an offence.

Charging documents show Pikia is accused of advising Tarit Holdings Ltd to enter into a contract with Ka Ora Ltd, a health food company Pikia is a director and previous shareholder of, to buy shares for $400,000 without disclosing he had agreed to receive shares to the same value as a gift.

The Serious Fraud Office further claims he attempted to obstruct or defeat the course of justice by altering minutes of a Tarit Holdings Ltd board meeting.

And while acting as an agent of Tarit Holdings Ltd, the Serious Fraud Office alleges Pikia corruptly offered to accept or solicited a payment of $150,000 as a reward for lending his support as a board member in favour of buying a Rotorua property.

It is also alleged he obtained $364,500 from Tarit through timesheets falsely representing his engagement in residual settlement negotiations.

Philip Morgan QC is representing the Serious Fraud Office and Fletcher Pilditch is representing Pikia.

The trial is expected to be heard in 2024.