Whanganui CEO denies laundering $1.53m in scam proceeds, says he was duped by fake lawyer

In an extraordinary interview with the Herald, the company director and former board member for his son’s Whanganui school said authorities should be going after the Europe-based scam mastermind, not him.

Herewini said the man had an English accent, was active on LinkedIn and the pair had shared a Zoom meeting, meaning Herewini could identify the crook for police.

“There’s no way in hell I would have intentionally done anything to put my family at risk,” said Herewini – who can finally be named after interim suppression lapsed.

“I’m a victim in this as well. I stand to be incarcerated. Who will look after my boys?

“I’m fighting to clear my name here and carry on being a parent for my children.”

However, Herewini’s alleged victims have little sympathy after losing their life savings to an elaborate investment fraud involving foreign criminals and Herewini’s New Zealand bank accounts.

They hope he faces justice at his upcoming trial. He could be jailed for up to seven years if convicted on the eight counts of money laundering he is charged with.

One of the victims is Kāpiti woman Kate* who lost $550,000.

She is demanding answers about why Herewini was able to open a TSB Bank account – used to funnel a portion of her stolen funds offshore – months after his alleged offending was reported to authorities and ASB Bank.

Court documents obtained by the Herald show Herewini is accused of using his Whanganui ASB FastSaver account to help steal $1.33m between November 2022 and May 2023.

Days after the money landed in the account, Herewini claimed, he would send the cash to a Singapore-based HSBC account controlled by the fake lawyer.

It is Herewini’s position that the Englishman told Herewini the money was payment for legal services he’d provided to Kiwi clients for real estate work.

The Brit claimed he needed an “escrow agent” to receive the payments into a NZ holding account and would pay Herewini a commission of between 1% and 2% for each transaction.

Herewini said he made most of the offshore transfers to the scammer online, but claimed several were done in person at his local ASB branch, with assistance from bank staff.

Asked to respond, ASB said there were “inaccuracies” in some of Herewini’s claims but refused to specify what they were, citing privacy.

Scam reported to authorities in May 2023

Another alleged victim was Whangarei health worker Borja Ares, who lost $330,000 after being duped into investing in a fake Citibank term deposit scheme.

Ares realised he’d been scammed in late May 2023 and immediately contacted police, his own bank, BNZ, and the receiving bank, ASB.

ASB froze Herewini’s account shortly after being alerted to the fraud.

Needing to pay rent and receive wages from his then-employer, Herewini said, he opened another account at TSB.

Police allege this account was used to receive $200,000 of Kate’s money on August 10 – about 10 weeks after Ares first blew the whistle.

That money – along with $350,000 she sent to a BNZ account controlled by someone else – was never recovered.

Kate told the Herald the stolen cash was proceeds from a property sale earmarked for her and her husband’s retirement.

She was shocked that neither police nor ASB appeared to have alerted the wider banking sector to Herewini’s alleged offending when it first came to light.

It was galling that he was able to open another account under his company’s name, Global Tech, before siphoning her funds overseas.

She felt ASB’s apparent failure to warn other banks meant it should shoulder some responsibility for her loss.

“I didn’t realise the guy had already been caught at another bank doing the same thing.

“No one put any flags up anywhere, nothing.

“That is the crime. We shouldn’t have been subjected to that through the banking system.”

ASB has already taken fire for allowing a “money mule” to use the company’s bank account to allegedly wash large amounts of stolen cash.

Critics claim the case raises questions about whether ASB properly monitored Herewini’s account for fraudulent activity and if strict anti-money laundering regulations were breached.

However, ASB chief operating officer Amie Nilsson said the company took its anti-money laundering responsibilities seriously and invested significantly in fraud security.

“When ASB receives notification or identifies a mule account, actions are taken to prevent further fraudulent and scam activity.”

Payments in and out of suspected mule accounts were tracked, and other banks were notified of any such interbank transfers.

Nilsson said this was done “within the confines of New Zealand’s current privacy and anti-money laundering legislation”.

“ASB supports the ability of banks to legally share more information on mules and has been working with the industry in order to progress these developments.”

‘Oh s***, I’ve been done’

After selling a family property, Kate searched online for term deposit rates when she found a site called Plazafundsmanagement.com and entered her details.

The site was fake but has a similar name to a legitimate company called Plaza Funds Management Limited which is registered with the NZ Companies Office and licensed by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).

She was contacted by a man with an Irish accent purporting to be an investment broker. He sent her prospectus information and persuaded her to invest in Infratil bonds and a Westpac term deposit.

Kate had to provide identification details including her driver’s licence for so-called anti-money laundering checks before being sent payment instructions for the sham investment.

She transferred $250,000 to a BNZ account by phone on July 21, 2023 with assistance from ANZ staff. She sent a further $100,000 online to the same account four days later. Both transactions mentioned “Plaza Funds” in the reference field, she said.

About a week later, on August 3, the FMA issued a public scam warning about Plazafundsmanagement.com, saying it was not a registered financial service provider and recommending caution when dealing with the website.

A week later, on August 10, Kate made two separate $100,000 online payments via ANZ to Herewini’s TSB account.

She wrote “Plaza FM” in the reference field.

Kate only learned she’d been scammed in February 2024 after trying to contact the broker about an interest payment but discovering his phone number was dead.

“It went ‘bleep, bleep, bleep’ and I said, ‘Oh s***, I’ve been done’.”

She reported the fraud to police and ANZ but nothing was recovered.

Police told her the criminals appeared to be based in Australia and Vietnam.

She said she had always been wary of scams but the fraudsters were extremely convincing.

She had looked up the investment company, which appeared to be NZ-registered.

The interest rates on offer were a cut above the bank but weren’t “too good to be true”, Kate said.

“It all looked very kosher. There were no red flags whatsoever.”

Learning she had been scammed and her retirement savings lost was utterly devastating.

“I guess you feel a bit embarrassed, like you’ve been totally stupid and sucked in.”

She was angry to learn an NZ bank account had been used to help steal her money and wanted to know why Herewini had not been red-flagged back in May 2023.

While glad he had been charged, she did not expect to receive anything in reparation if he was convicted.

In her opinion: “He’s probably a dickhead. He probably doesn’t have a dime to his name.”

Alleged money mule says ‘there were no red flags’

Herewini told the Herald he first met the fake lawyer, Alex, online via LinkedIn about 2008, when the scammer had provided business advice.

Alex contacted Herewini again in 2022 with a business proposal involving the use of his bank account to receive client payments before transferring them overseas.

Alex apparently worked for a global firm based in the UK. The pair held a Zoom meeting and Herewini was sent a contract, with Alex recommending he seek independent legal advice.

Herewini said the proposal seemed legitimate. There was nothing to raise his suspicion.

He claims he ran the contract past a legal expert who said lawyers often engaged “escrow agents” to manage deposits, and gave him the all-clear.

“He said, ‘It’s a pretty straightforward contract’. I was advised there were no red flags.

“Based on this advice … I had no reason to doubt [Alex’s] credibility as a legal professional, which gave me the confidence in him to move forward. So I signed it.”

Herewini said money began appearing in his ASB account in late 2022 – mostly in amounts under $50,000.

Alex would send “know your client” documentation with each new deposit, including verification of the victims’ identities and addresses.

Herewini said he held the money in his account for an agreed five-day “cooling off”, or cancellation, period before transferring it offshore.

Eventually, his account was frozen and he was referred to ASB’s fraud department. Herewini then opened another account at TSB.

After receiving and then transferring Kate’s $200,000, Herewini was arrested and charged in August 2023. His TSB account was also frozen.

He maintains he had no knowledge of criminal activity and claims he was also duped.

“He scammed me too. He led me to believe that what he was doing was honest and ethical.

“I hope this prick gets caught.”

Herewini said he could identify Alex from the Zoom call and wants police to seek an extradition order so the scammer can face justice.

“I think the police stopped on me and didn’t want to go any further. I’m a victim myself because of the way this all played out. I’m fighting for my innocence.

“Knowing what I know now, if I could reverse time it would be, ‘No way’.

“But it was all above board as far as I was concerned. It looked real, it felt real and the amounts being transferred from the victims weren’t that big.

“So no, I don’t think I was naive.”

Banks defend actions, ANZ denies liability

TSB would not comment on the case while it was before the courts, but said it carried out due diligence on every new customer.

Accounts suspected of being used fraudulently were immediately frozen and attempts were made to recover funds.

“If we believe it has been used as part of a scam or fraud, we will close the account and report the incident to the police.”

TSB supported “stronger information sharing” across the industry to strengthen onboarding checks and ongoing monitoring to better protect customers.

ANZ said it undertook a detailed review of Kate’s case which found the bank was acting on the customer’s instructions and did not contribute to her loss.

During the July 21 phone call, Kate did not mention the money was for an investment or that she was making payments to an “unregistered business”.

While the August 10 online transfers – a week after the FMA’s public warning – did mention Plaza Funds, payee reference fields “are not subject to bank checks” and were solely for customer record keeping, a spokesman said.

A police spokesman would not confirm whether the fake lawyer was under investigation, but said police worked with international law enforcement agencies “when conducting investigations involving foreign nationals”.

Police did not generally issue industry-wide alerts, the spokesman said. These were typically generated by banks or organisations like FMA, CERT NZ or Netsafe, which were most likely to identify scams.

Police urged people to be cautious when anyone, particularly online, asked for money.

“If you think you are getting scammed or laundering money, stop all contact with the scammer, do not make any more payments, contact your bank and report it to police.”

Herewini goes to trial in the Whanganui District Court in May.

*Name changed to protect victim’s identity.

Lane Nichols is deputy head of news and a senior journalist for the New Zealand Herald with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry.

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