Four people charged in a mortgage fraud case involving more than $40 million of loans and accusations of kickbacks to bank staff have pleaded not guilty.
The quartet face charges of obtaining by deception over information provided to secure more than $40m of mortgage finance on dozens of Auckland and Hamilton properties.
Three of the quartet have also been charged with breaching the little-used Secret Commissions Act.
Those charges allege that payments, ranging from $5000 to more than $30,000, were paid by and to bank staff in return for approving suspect mortgage applications.
The SFO alleges total kickbacks paid exceeded $500,000, with one accused lawyer alleged to have paid a bank staff member $253,303 over an eight-month period.
