Gerard Peters, infamous for parking his Lamborghini in a disabled parking space in 2015, has recently been charged by the Serious Fraud Office for his role in a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme.
Gerard Peters, infamous for parking his Lamborghini in a disabled parking space in 2015, has recently been charged by the Serious Fraud Office for his role in a multi-million dollar mortgage fraud scheme.
The Serious Fraud Office has laid charges against six people over an alleged $8.6 million mortgage fraud scheme that left one pensioner moving into what she thought was her mortgage-free new home only to find a $1.1m bank loan was on the property title and her name was not.
Theaction in the North Shore and Auckland district courts, seeing 41 charges in total laid against six defendants, comes three years after the Herald published an investigation into Lamborghini-driving businessman Gerard Peters and a series of related-party property sales and mortgage registrations that saw several Auckland family homes subsequently lost at mortgagee sales.
Gerard and his relative Robert Peters are two of those charged. The other four have name suppression, including one individual who earlier this month pleaded guilty to four counts of obtaining by deception and will be sentenced on August 14.
In a statement the SFO described the guilty plea as a “pivotal step” in their investigation, with at least three other defendants having elected to face trial by jury.
The Herald had reported in early 2021 Gerard Peters and others had purported to be able use home equity to funnel into lucrative investments offshore, but promised dividends quickly dried up and banks began taking foreclosure action. The Peters’ had also raised millions from other investors to earn high interest rates offshore, but this scheme also ran into trouble.
The SFO alleges the scheme raised more than $8.6m from banks, with another $3m unsuccessfully sought, and used falsified documents to procure mortgage finance.
Gerard had gained a measure of international notoriety in 2015 when his $400,000 Lamborghini was towed from LynnMall for misusing a disabled parking space. That car, and five other luxury vehicles, were seized in 2020 by creditors chasing unpaid debts.
Receivers acting for creditors said Gerard had moved overseas and was believed to be in either Malaysia or the United States. His current whereabouts are unknown.
In 2021 Gerard, through legal firm Lee Salmon Long, issued voluminous and strenuous denials of wrongdoing to the Herald. Lee Salmon Long no longer represents Peters.
Auckland pensioner Sandra Rosolowski was the most prominent victim of the Peters’ scheme, having laid complaints with her bank and police in 2018 following a 2017 property transaction.
She featured on the front page of the Herald on Sunday in March 2021 describing her experience as a “convoluted nightmare” and demanding progress in her long-stalled quest for justice.
“This should be blown open, and revealed so everyone can see it,” she said.
Herald on Sunday front page featuring the late Sandra Rosolowski.
But Herald attempts to contact her in May 2021 to alert her to news the SFO had opened a formal investigation into the case - more than two years after the matter had been referred to them by police - went unanswered.
Her son, Tyler, told the Herald the long wait for justice - with his mother’s complaints to authorities having started six years ago and having to juggle legal issues alongside his mother’s passing - had stretched his faith.
“I’d completely lost faith in the justice system in New Zealand. If we can’t protect the weakest of us in society, what’s the point? My mother was a frail old lady with epilepsy, and she deserved better than this,” he said.
Of the laying of charges in the case, Tyler said: “This is the best news I’ve heard in years.”
Sandra had complained to the Herald that she was left cold in winter at her new home as she was unable to install a heat pump as builders required signoff from the property owner, which legally wasn’t her.
Tyler said his mother had become increasingly withdrawn in her later years as fallout from the scheme had escalated, and said she was afraid to leave the house over fears the bank would repossess it while she was out.
“She never went on holiday: These were her sunset years and she was afraid to live her life because of this stormcloud,” he said.
In the SFO statement the fraud-busting agencies’ director Karen Chang said: “Mortgage and investment fraud schemes of this nature can have a devastating impact on the lives of ordinary New Zealanders who want to invest, as well as corrode trust in our financial institutions.”
Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism - including twice being named Reporter of the Year - and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting from business newspapers and national magazines.
