Peters asks if ex-party head used cash for ailing company

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters asked in Parliament yesterday whether former National Party president Geoff Thompson used money donated to the party in 1996 to get his company Waipuna International out of financial trouble.

The Serious Fraud Office is investigating alleged misuse of donations to the party during that time.

It is believed a $250,000 donation from bankers Fay Richwhite, put into a trust account run by Mr Thompson's law firm, Macalister Mazengarb, is at the centre of the investigation.

"Fay Richwhite paid a cheque to Geoffrey Thompson and he banked it. The real issue is, where is the audit trail?" said Mr Peters.

"Precisely into which account of Macalister Mazengarb went this cheque?

"On whose behalf was the cheque to be held and what happened to this money?" Mr Peters asked.

"Is there any significance, as I believe there is, in the then-president of the National Party running a company called Waipuna International, which was in serious financial trouble in the period about which I speak, March 1996.

" ... the company is in serious trouble and then in July Mr Thompson is writing to shareholders saying 'hold your shares, we're in a far better state of affairs than we thought'.

"I'm asking, did Mr Thompson apply that money to that company's purpose, and does the audit trail show that?"

Mr Peters said he wanted to know why the SFO was taking so long to find answers to those questions.

"I say the whole thing stinks."

Cabinet minister Trevor Mallard also raised the issue.

"What I want to know is, was it 5 per cent or 10 per cent that Geoff Thompson clipped off the ticket on the way through?" he said.

"How much of it came out the other end? Was it $250,000, was it $200,000, was it $225,000?

"Did the National Party get the interest on the money? No, they didn't."

Mr Thompson has previously said he received two cheques within about a week and they were put on deposit, earned interest, and then combined into one payment for the party. He had no comment last night.

- NZPA