A Napier man will serve 300 hours community service, after he indicated he was interested in buying a plane, said he was a pilot, flew the aircraft - all without a licence.

Name suppression has been lifted on a Wellington accountant found guilty of providing false tax returns and misleading information to the Inland Revenue.

Leonardo DiCaprio is bringing his outrageous life – dwarf-tossing, drugs and all – to the big screen in The Wolf of Wall Street, but who is the real Jordan Belfort?

Australian lawyer Julie Read has taken the helm of the Serious Fraud Office at a time when its future has yet to be charted.

A controversial cancer charity will not face prosecution after it voluntarily de-registered as a charity during a probe into its spending.

Thousands of dollars worth of roading materials destined for a ratepayer-funded project were delivered to home renovations of a senior council manager, a whistleblower claims.

A bankrupt property developer who used fronts and false information to borrow money as part of a $50 million loan scheme has been found guilty this morning.

A Labour Party candidate in the first Super City elections has been found guilty of two counts of using forged documents but has been acquitted on 18 other electoral fraud allegations.

Some NZ computer users have paid $500 ransom demands after finding their machines encrypted and a ransom note demanding cash.

'It's frustrating as hell,' says a 90-year-old victim of Ponzi fraudster Bernie Madoff, who's one of legions of investors still hurting five years on.

A Napier retailer warns a man claiming to be from "Google business" is offering a preferential listing for $295 - which must be paid via paypal. Ignore calls like this.

The man who took a successful private prosecution against John Banks has threatened to take one over Labour leader David Cunliffe's by-election tweet.

Act Leader John Banks' decision to leave Parliament at the next election under the cloud of electoral fraud charges is not the end of the party, its president John Boscawen says.

Agency failed to consider key evidence in $1.7 billion South Canterbury Finance investigation.

The way Frank DiPascali tells it, Bernard Madoff planted the seeds of deception for his $17 billion Ponzi scheme back in the 1970s.

Ross consistently showed good returns over two decades, even through the global financial crisis. It's incredible that with nearly half a billion of non-existent funds under his control, no one suspected a thing.

Police asset freezing action against two jailed Capital + Merchant directors is unprecedented.

A High Court judge has made restraining orders over property linked to two jailed Capital + Merchant Finance directors, with the police looking to eventually seize the assets.

A financial adviser who spent some of the $4.7million he stole from investors on flash cars and a lavish lifestyle was not entirely motivated by personal gain, his lawyer has told the Court of Appeal.

Australian-based agribusiness Elders has fallen to an annual loss of A$505 million ($568 million), but says big costs from its restructuring are behind it.

Ponzi-scheme operator David Ross, who committed one of NZ's biggest financial swindles, has been handed more jail time than anyone else to face a Serious Fraud Office prosecution.

The man behind NZ's largest Ponzi scheme has been sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in jail - a punishment deemed too lenient by one of his victims.

A retired policeman and a chartered accountant are among 55 New Zealanders fleeced for $1.7 million by a Malaysia-based scam.