SFO chief targets finance companies

Adam Feeley previously worked for the Eden Park Redevelopment Board. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The new head of the Serious Fraud Office has set a deadline of March 31 to decide if charges will be laid against people it is investigating over their finance company activities, but it may be too late to prosecute some.

In his first public comments since taking on the job in November, lawyer Adam Feeley says the SFO has taken far too long to bring charges, and finance companies are now top of its priority list.

The SFO has yet to charge any finance company directors despite more than two and half years having passed since the collapse of Bridgecorp left 14,500 investors $460 million out of pocket.

Mr Feeley said he was loath to criticise his predecessor, but "I think the SFO could have moved faster".

He said that in some cases there had been "great difficulty" in obtaining evidence because it had to come from overseas.

"That is often difficult and bureaucratic."

In other cases, the SFO had faced challenges in getting enough information.

"Some weren't willing or able to co-operate with us. We have some powers to get information but it is not complete."

But Mr Feeley said he believed the SFO could have done more to prioritise the cases. The previous CEO had felt the need to balance the finance company cases with others on its books and there were competing priorities.

Mr Feeley said he was taking a different approach. "Finance companies are the number-one priority."

But the slow response time could now make it harder for some charges to be laid.

Mr Feeley, who previously worked for the Eden Park Redevelopment Board, said the SFO would have to take the passage of time into account. But if there was a legitimate reason for it to look at a finance company, it would still do so even if the case was years old.

In some cases, it might be too late to charge anyone. But public interest needed to be factored into the decision-making.

Mr Feeley said a decision on whether a charge could be laid would take into account how soon the SFO got access to information and was aware of a situation.

"If it is simply because there is a delay at our end, we've got to factor that in."

The office has six years to look into a company once it is made aware of a fraud.

He described the finance company debacle as a historic legacy he did not wish to repeat.

The SFO would in future react quickly and keep people informed, he promised.

It would also prioritise those cases it saw as the most important.

Mr Feeley expected simpler cases like the recent ASB fraud investigation to take around three months.

More complex cases, such as those of the finance companies, should take up to six months.