Inland Revenue is standing ahead of failed South Canterbury Finance for money from ex-Datasouth Group boss Gavin Bennett.

The stolen identities of dead children were allegedly used by an elderly man to scam taxpayers of $450,000 in a rare type of benefit fraud. Colin Diedrichs is accused of pretending to be two young boys - who died decades ago.

The SFO is close to completing its probe into a Whangarei-based foreign exchange company.