Bankrupt motivational trainer Richard Gee gets taxpayer aid money

Speaking from Tonga, Richard Gee said he had been given permission by the Official Assignee to leave the country and do the training courses.

$29,000 from Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade paid to Aucklander for business success courses in Tonga.

A bankrupt business trainer whose mentoring companies are in liquidation has been revealed as a taxpayer-funded envoy hired to teach fledgling Tongan firms the secret of success.

Auckland's Richard Peter Gee, 64, was in Tonga last week on his third mentoring session since being made bankrupt in the High Court at Auckland. Herald inquiries have found Mr Gee received $29,000 for the mentoring courses in Tonga - part of an aid package for the Pacific nation funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

A spokeswoman for Mfat - which runs the aid scheme - said it had no idea Mr Gee had been bankrupted during a period he was carrying out business mentoring courses.

She said the money was paid to the Tonga Chamber of Commerce as part of a larger aid package and the organisation then handled contracting itself. She said Mfat believed $29,000 had been paid to Geewiz Group Professional Speakers Ltd which provided "six courses of up to five days in length" between 2013 and 2015.

"The ministry takes the delivery of its business development programmes very seriously. We have high expectations of the procurement standards and contractual arrangements set by our aid partners, and expect action to be taken in the event of any potential breach."

The spokeswoman said Mfat had told the Tonga Chamber of Commerce and the Tonga Business Enterprise Centre it wanted information on Mr Gee being contracted to provide the mentoring services.

Mr Gee was made bankrupt in August last year. The bankruptcy followed the liquidations of two mentoring businesses and a High Court case critical of how Mr Gee met his legal obligations as a company director. In the case, Justice Brendan Brown found it had been "irresponsible" for Mr Gee to continue to trade as Richard Geewiz Gee Consultants Ltd when he had not worked out how to pay outstanding taxes.

Mr Gee's former accountant Tim Livingstone told the court the company operated by Mr Gee was insolvent the entire time it was in operation. He had written to Mr Gee each year advising him of this.

Mr Gee was ordered to pay $85,000 in the wake of the company liquidation. It was separately found the successor company, Geewiz Ltd, also went into liquidation in 2011 and was found to be owing $70,000.

The company contracted to do the training in Tonga - Geewiz Group Professional Speakers Ltd - is owned by Mr Gee and his wife. Mr Gee resigned as a director from the company the same day he was made bankrupt, leaving wife Judith as the sole director. By law, bankrupts are banned from any involvement in running companies.

Speaking from Tonga, Mr Gee said he had been given permission by the Official Assignee - which oversees bankruptcies - to leave the country and do the training courses.

"I'm allowed to earn a living. As a speaker, I make a living standing in front of groups of people. It's training work. I don't have to disclose my personal situation if my contract is with the company. The people that need to know, know it personally."

His wife was unavailable for comment. The Herald has identified three occasions on which Mr Gee visited Tonga to run mentoring courses after being made bankrupt. He ran courses in Tonga in November 2014, May this year and again last week.

TBEC manager Victorina Kioa said the training contract was not with Mr Gee personally but with the company which hired him, Geewiz Group Professional Speakers Ltd.

Asked if Mr Gee had declared his bankruptcy, she said: "He just did. He is currently doing training here at the moment." She said the topics taught by Mr Gee included sales techniques, marketing, business etiquette, strategic planning and business leadership.

A spokesman for the Official Assignee said Mr Gee had consent to run training programmes and seminars but had not received permission to have a role managing the business which employed him.

Richard Gee
•Bankrupt business mentor teaching Tongan firms how to succeed
•Bankrupted after two of his mentoring businesses went bust
•His contract to mentor in Tonga was paid from NZ Aid money through a Tongan agency
•NZ has pledged $6m to Tonga to improve and strengthen business between 2014 and 2019