16 January 2013

SFO charge gold trader

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has today laid criminal charges against Kairuaiti Tangata Oropai Robert Kairua (52), the director of Grace Holdings NZ Limited (Grace NZ).

Mr Kairua faces 29 Crimes Act charges of theft by person in special relationship and false statement by promoter.

Trading under the name BullionBuyer, the core business of Grace NZ was the provision of gold and other precious metal leverage trading to investors.

The SFO charges allege that:

· False statements were made regarding the company and Mr Kairua to solicit investors;

· Investors’ funds were applied for purposes other than the investments promoted. The SFO allege that Mr Kairua misapplied a total of over NZ$400,000 equivalent; and funds were invested contrary to investor requirements.

· Investors were provided with false statements that failed to report the true position of their investments.

Information obtained by the SFO showed that at the time of its collapse, Grace NZ claimed to hold investor funds of approximately US$3.3 million.

Acting Chief Executive of the SFO, Simon McArley noted that this was the latest in a string of cases involving investment advisors and the application and reporting of the investment funds they received.

“While poor investment decisions or performances are not a crime, investment advisors and managers must be truthful with investors as to the purpose to which funds will be applied and the performance of those investments,” he said.

ENDS

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