LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire – Long-time opponent of the Serious Fraud Office, Winston Peters, had another dig at the SFO over their lacklustre record, as the Government announce the creation of a new Organised Crime Agency.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has welcomed the creation of the Organised Crime Agency, announced by the government yesterday, and accused the Serious Fraud Office of ignoring difficult cases to boost it’s success rate.
The Government announced yesterday it was setting up the OCA, which will absorb the SFO, to fight organised crime at home and in the Pacific.
It will be part of the Police Force and will probably be based at Police National Headquarters in Wellington, Police Minister Annette King said.
SFO staff will be transferred to the OCA during a 12-month transition period.
Mr Peters, a critic of the SFO over its failure to prosecute after the 1990s Winebox Inquiry, said although the SFO had a 90 percent success rate with prosecutions, that was boosted by the fact it only took on “easy” cases and tended to turn a blind eye to harder ones.
He said more resources were needed to tackle both fraud and organised crime and hopefully the new agency would do that.
