Julie Read

SFO Successes

Julie Read has overseen a number of successes and a generally busy year for the SFO, including some heavily-charged politically sensitive charges.

Among the most recent have been one of the potentially largest-ever fraud cases in New Zealand involving Christchurch economist Kelly Tonkin and investments made into his Cayman Island-based investment fund.

However there have been the successful prosecution of Dunedin investment adviser Barry Kloogh, six charged in relation to Labour Party donations, the investigation into New Zealand First’s finances, allegations about misdeeds involving the Maori Party’s finances and a complaint regarding Auckland Mayor Phil Goff’s election expense.

All of which places Julie Read and her office firmly in the sites of those who would – rightly or wrongly – see the SFO as a political lever to pull.