“She had a hidden financial interest in the employment she arranged for him,” that tribunal said in a ruling released today.
“As for the fee of Rmb85,000 [$19,000], grossly excessive for the services disclosed in the agreement, this is another noteworthy breach of Ms Ma’s obligations.”
The tribunal issued a censure for Ma as well as a $5000 fine and an order that she repay the fee she charged the man.
According to the tribunal’s summary, the migrant, who was not named in the decision, was a young Chinese carpenter who approached Ma in 2022 about securing a work visa in New Zealand.
He travelled to Auckland in January 2023, where he started work for Ma’s husband.
Two months later, he found himself fired from his role constructing apartment buildings for speaking to a client and ruining the employer’s reputation, according to notes in the tribunal’s decision earlier this year.
He made a complaint to Ma directly about the price he’d paid for his visa, but she didn’t respond and blocked him on the messaging app WeChat.
He then complained to the tribunal, which found earlier this year that Ma had significantly overcharged the migrant, provided him with misleading advice, failed to disclose a conflict of interest and failed to provide him a written agreement for her services.
In her submissions to the tribunal, Ma agreed she should have raised the conflict of interest with her client, but said he should have noticed anyhow as she used the same address as the employer.
As for the excessive fee, Ma said her client should have complained about it at the beginning.
She also said the migrant approached the media, who took photos of her at a park and showed up at her house. She said he’d abused the New Zealand legal system and “played the victim”.
Ma went on to submit that she’d worked hard to find accommodation and employment for the migrant and she had no intention of hurting or misleading him.
In its ruling released today, the tribunal said Ma undermined her acknowledgement of her wrongdoing by criticising the migrant for not raising an issue about the fee sooner.
“It is irrelevant that the complainant, who may not have known it was wrong, did not raise a concern earlier. It does not reduce the gravity of Ms Ma’s wrongdoing,” the tribunal’s decision reads.
“She expresses no remorse to the complainant for failing to disclose the conflict or charging a grossly excessive fee.”
The business Ma listed for payment from her client, Colab Ltd, is not registered with the Companies Office and she did not respond to requests for comment.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
