May Wang back in NZ court for Hong Kong trial

Businesswoman May Wang Photo / Greg Bowker

Failed Crafar Farms bidder and fraud case defendant May Wang was back in the High Court at Auckland today as evidence was taken for her trial, which has begun in Hong Kong.

Wang, with co-accused Keen Chen and Wenjye Yee, face charges for conspiracy to defraud laid by Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The businesswoman, who also goes by the name May Hao, is best known in this country as a failed purchaser of 22 North Island dairy farms, known as the Crafar Farms. Sixteen of these farms were eventually bought in 2012 by China's Shanghai Pengxin for a sum thought to be about $200 million.

The accused trio, together with a cohort of international lawyers, were in the High Court at Auckland this morning, where evidence in their case was being taken before Justice Patricia Courtney.

One of the first things the judge did was to extend a 2013 suppression order, which banned reporting of the evidence being taken in New Zealand until the Hong Kong trial, which is expected to run until March next year, is completed.

Wang does not face any charges in New Zealand.

The events leading up to Wang's failed purchase of the Crafar Farms form the crux of ICAC's case against her.

According to prosecutors, Wang and Chen allegedly induced Hong-Kong listed firm Natural Dairy to acquire the Crafar Farms from one of her companies.

This company, according to prosecutors, did not own the farms but would purchase them with Natural Dairy's money in the name of another of Wang's firms, UBNZ Assets Holdings.

Natural Dairy would, in turn, own UBNZ Assets Holdings and therefore the dairy farms.

Although the Crafar Farms were allegedly on the brink of bankruptcy, Wang and Yee are accused of falsifying their accounts so they appeared to be in substantial profit.

The trio are also accused of failing to declare that Chen and Wang had an agreement to share the commission arising from the sale and purchase of the farms.

Unaware of this relationship, and ignorant of the true state of the farm's finances, prosecutors say Natural Dairy approved the acquisition and in 2010 raised HK$955 million ($186 million) to finance it.

Funds to buy the farms were allegedly transferred into a trust account of Auckland law firm Knight Coldicutt, which also had done work for companies associated with Wang.

Four of the 22 farms were purchased for $25.5 million in February 2010 and in May a deposit was paid for the remainder of them, pending Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approval of the transaction.

But later that year Wang was declared bankrupt in New Zealand and then arrested with Chen in Hong Kong. A week later, the OIO refused to grant permission for the purchase of the remaining farms.