Showing posts with label politician. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politician. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Labour Party official in immigration probe (Auckland, New Zealand)

A Labour Party official is being investigated over immigration irregularities, just weeks after he helped Labour MP Su'a William Sio facilitate a meeting with Pacific Islanders duped in a fake-visa scam.

Immigration New Zealand confirmed it was investigating Semisi Faka'osiki

muli, the secretary of the Labour Party's Tongan branch, but would not disclose details or comment further while the investigation is going on.

The Herald understands the investigation centres around fake skilled employment offers to help immigrants get New Zealand work permits and residencies, but it is not clear how much money or how many people were involved.

Mr Sio, Labour's Mangere MP, said he was "surprised and shocked" at the allegations against Mr Faka'osikimuli - but said he supported the Immigration investigation "to get to the bottom of the matter".

"For too long, our people have been preyed on ... because of their desperate immigration situations, and this is all part of cleaning the industry up, so I say, bring it on."

Mr Sio said he had known Mr Faka'osikimuli for two years and had worked with him in various capacities - most recently at a meeting with Pacific Islander victims of a fake residency stamps and visa scam on July 4, where Mr Faka'osikimuli chaired the Tongan group.

"He's an active member of the Labour Party, and like many members of the local Pacific community, Semisi comes regularly to my electorate office in Mangere," Mr Sio said.

Mr Faka'osikimuli, a former immigration consultant, said yesterday that he was not aware of any investigation and that Immigration had not contacted him.

"Yes, I am involved with the Labour Party, but I do not use it to push my private business," he said.

Han Jian, a former client of Mr Faka'osikimuli - whom he knows as James Semisi - said he decided to lodge a report to the police and Immigration, after receiving a letter from Immigration accusing him of fraud and submitting fake employment job offer documents, and for falsely claiming he had an offer of skilled employment from a company, TVP Computers.

"I was shocked, because I didn't go for any interviews and didn't even know I had any job offer, and I definitely did not submit anything to Immigration," said Mr Han in Mandarin.

"After paying James about $14,000, all he said was to trust him and that is what I did. I thought with his involvement in the Labour Party, he will have good connections with Immigration."

Mr Han, originally from China, who is now in New Zealand illegally, says he has engaged a new immigration adviser, Tuariki Delamere, and is fighting to stay in New Zealand.

When contacted by the Herald, Vaifoou Pangataa, of TVP Computers, said he was a sole owner-operator of the company and said he did not know Mr Han and had never made job offers to anyone.

According to Immigration documents, the application papers were submitted by Rosie Brown, JP, a community worker who works part-time out of Mr Sio's electorate office. Source: NZ Herald, article by Lincoln Tan.

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Field's sentence shows no one is above law - Speaker (New Zealand)


Disgraced former MP Taito Phillip Field's jail sentence shows no one is above the law, Speaker Lockwood Smith says.
Field was today jailed for six years for bribery and corruption and perverting the course of justice.
Justice Rodney Hansen sentenced Field to four years in prison on the bribery and corruption charges and two years on the charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
In August, a jury found the former Mangere MP guilty of 26 of the 35 criminal charges he faced at the end of a 14-week trial.
Field was found guilty of 11 of 12 charges of bribery and corruption after getting Thai nationals to carry out work on his properties in Auckland and Samoa in return for immigration assistance between November 2002 and October 2005.
He was also found guilty of 15 of 23 charges of wilfully attempting to obstruct or pervert the course of justice relating to evidence he gave to a government-ordered inquiry by Noel Ingram QC into his conduct.
As an opposition MP Dr Smith pursued Field. He asked then immigration minister David Cunliffe more than 400 questions over the Field affair, drilling into contradictions and querying answers.
Dr Smith said he was saddened that a former MP and minister had been sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
"It demonstrates that all members of Parliament are accountable for their actions and that none of us are above the law," he said through a spokesman.
Justice Hansen said an aggravating factor of Field's offending was that he was prepared to exploit the Thai nationals that he had helped.
"You saw the results, you must have known that their willing assistance was saving you tens of thousands of dollars," Justice Hansen said.
"In my view you quite consciously used their adulations of you for your private gain."
Justice Hansen also said the jury must have found Field was trying to avoid justice when making and arranging for false information to be given to the Ingram Inquiry.
"It is an aggravating factor that you recruited your Thai friends and Mr Sulusulu (another witness) into your web."
The judge went on to say Field put his private interests ahead of his public ones: "It was a test of your character and it was a test that in my view you failed."

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