'Arrest today' in Ponzi-type fraud Stuff.co.nz: "Serious Fraud Office says it will make an arrest today on charges relating to a Ponzi-style investment fraud involving tens of millions of dollars.
The identity of the business person facing arrest remained a mystery last night.
The SFO is not ruling out embattled South Canterbury businessman Allan Hubbard, but Hubbard said he thought it was unlikely.
Today's arrest stems from an investigation begun after a call to the SFO from the Companies Registrar, who had received a complaint about a suspected Ponzi scheme – a type of fraud that pays investors from their own money or that of other investors rather than from an actual profit.
'While it appeared to be little more than a regulatory Companies Act matter, the two organisations began the investigation together,' SFO chief executive Adam Feeley told Parliament's law and order select committee yesterday.
'It very quickly transformed into an SFO investigation and we then issued our powers.'
The result was serious criminal charges involving tens of millions of dollars to be laid today, Feeley said. He refused to elaborate.
'It will be somewhere in New Zealand and it will involve an SFO charge,' Feeley said.
An SFO investigation into Hubbard and his wife Jean, their investment companies Aorangi Securities and Hubbard Management Funds (HMF) and a number of charitable trusts began on June 21, after the Government placed them in statutory management.
Feeley has said he would like to have the Hubbard investigation wrapped up by Christmas."

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