Police foil $5.4m share plot

Two university students have been accused of masterminding a plot to steal $5.4 million of shares from financial companies.

Police allege the men, aged 22 and 23, targeted Computershare and First New Zealand Capital Securities between January and April but the organisations' security systems thwarted them.

They claim the men had help from two "mules".

All four live in Auckland and have been granted interim name suppression.

Charge sheets allege the first pair accessed Computershare systems, planning to transfer more than $3.7m into an account they created.

Police believe they intended to shift $3.4m from one account and more than $300,000 from another.

Detective Timothy Traviss, of the Auckland corporate fraud financial crime unit, said the men had obtained shareholders' personal information and security details.

Police believed the men were planning an "off-market share transfer, alleging that the legitimate shareholder wanted to sell those shares".

Traviss said the men used "inside information" to get into the system. He said no shares were stolen and the defendants were "pretty unlucky" to get caught.

The men are also accused of conspiring to gain access to $1.6m of shares held by First NZ Capital. Managing director Scott St John said they may have been helped by "an employee in a position of trust".

"Their efforts have been thwarted and now police are dealing with it."

Traviss said the alleged mules were aged 22 and 24 and provided their personal details to create an account into which the shares could be transferred.

The men alleged to be the main players appeared before Auckland District Court this week.
Each faced two charges of intending to dishonestly use a document to obtain pecuniary advantage, two of intentionally accessing a computer system without authorisation and one of conspiring to dishonestly use a document for pecuniary advantage.

The 22-year-old also faces three charges of stealing a credit card.

The alleged mules appeared last month. The 22-year-old faces two charges of using a document for pecuniary advantage, while the 24-year-old faces one such charge.

The older man's lawyer, Peter Eastwood, said his client would defend the charge. Other lawyers did not return phone calls. None of the men has entered pleas.

Computershare claims to be the world's largest and leading provider of investor services, with more than 30,000 clients in 20 countries.

New Zealand managing director Tim Bond said it had co-operated fully with police.

"There is nothing untoward at our end. We have a number of system checks and balances for suspicious activity and there was no compromise of our system."

All four men are due back in court next month.