The Serious Fraud Office has announced they’ve started an investigation into dodgy donations to the Labour party, dating back to 2017.
The Serious Fraud Office has commenced an investigation in relation to donations made to the Labour Party in 2017.
The SFO is presently conducting four investigations in relation to electoral funding matters. A fifth matter that the agency investigated relating to electoral funding is now before the courts.
“We consider that making the current announcement is consistent with our past practice in this area of electoral investigations and in the public interest,” the Director of the SFO, Julie Read, said.
In the interests of transparency and consistency, the SFO has announced the commencement of all these investigations.
The SFO has no further comment to make.
No doubt this will relate to the Chinese donors charged for their donations to the National party:
The Labour Party says it has received money from two of the people facing charges in relation to National Party donations but says they were above board.
Labour Party president Claire Szabo said in a statement that Zheng Hengjia donated $10,000 by buying a piece of art at a silent auction in April 2017.
Additionally Zheng Shijia donated $1940 in 2018.
Szabo said both were included as donations in the Labour Party return filed in the respective years.
The two men, along with Jami-Lee Ross and Zhang Yikun, face charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office in relation to two $100,000 donations made to the National Party in 2017 and 2018.
And also the painting auctions from 2017:
The Labour Party is hiding tens of thousands of dollars in donations behind over-inflated art auctions – and naming the artists as donors instead of the secret individuals handing over the big bucks.
The artists had no idea the party was naming them as the donors – they never saw a cent of the money. They say their works are auctioned off at well above market value to wealthy benefactors who want to keep their support for the party secret.
Labour says the practice complies with electoral rules. But one party operative described the practice as “whitewashing” – a way to keep big donations private at a time when corporate contributions to political parties were falling because of public scrutiny.
Labour may say that but it looks like the Serious Fraud Office says otherwise. So far only Act and the Greens have escaped scrutiny from the Serious Fraud Office.
Meanwhile it looks like murky donations are set to dominate our election.
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