I spoke to Adam Feeley, the head of the Serious Fraud Office yesterday about the conspiracy charges the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption had just laid against the unsuccessful Crafar farm bidders, particularly May Wang,
He told me the charges resulted from 16 months of work by a dedicated SFO team, co-operating with the ICAC, gathering evidence here in NZ about [alleged] criminal activities targeting Hong Kong Chinese investors.
That team obviously worked to make the charges ‘stick’. (In journalism we talk about making the story ‘stand up’.) It can be touch and go, just to get to the point of having enough evidence of intent and actions to make a case. (Innocent until proven guilty, sure. But there seemed to be something fishy about that whole Natural Dairy (New Zealand) Holdings Ltd business.)
It made me think of the storm surrounding Feeley about a $70 bottle of plonk which may or may not have belonged to Bridgecorp.
What actually matters?
– P
He that is “faithful in a little … may be set over much” and of course vice versa …
Anyway Pete – i spoke to Maude Frobisher from number 240 in carruth rd papatoetoe and she told me the charges were all bullshit. Maude said that saying things were “fishy” about Dairy Products was a contradiction in terms – as was calling Ms Wang – ‘weng’.
But what the hell – IMHO im FFS and WTF and even LMAO over the FUN at the WTO – im namedropping again for which i apologise in advance.
I wish i could speak to well known people. It sucks to be un-in-the-know.
Whats next Pete – a full expose in Womans Day.
Thanks. Fixed my dreadful misspelling. Rushed this morning.
Does it sound like I’m showing off Ivan? Sorry. I did speak to Adam Feeley and it did occur to me the guy had bigger things on his mind.
Cheers, P
nah mate – im joking – just jealous because of my own very mediocre life!
I find i get to the point where i have to keep away from blogs – im a longhand sorta guy and you interestingly – are about the only other blogger other than Chris Trotter – who writes something resembling good prose etc. I have a hatred of acronyms too – so i thought i’d throw that into the mix as well.
About Feeley – gungho behaviour of that sort (wine etc) prejudices the office he holds. Its a bit like Key and Joyce – they just dont seem to get the fact that the devil is always in the detail – not the big picture. Feeleys behaviour as reported – smacks of the worst excesses of “..tude” pre the 87 sharemarket crash. If you’re a watchdog – you shouldnt behave like a property developer.
So – i envy people like you who get to talk to the big cheeses in life and society. Still – if i was to i’d get arrested for random acts of eye-gouging, spitting, ball-grabbing (males only), headbutting, and public ‘brown-eyes’.
Guess i’ll never be in media.
Cheers Pete … you bloody old showoff you.
{Snort!} Funny!
Yeah there is an etiquette that news media wallahs must strictly adhere to … I’m pretty sure ball-grabbing falls outside it. (Mind you, some politicians really let their hair down at those press gallery parties…)
Thanks for your kind comments, Ivan. I enjoy reading Chris Trotter too. Give Maude F. my regards.
– P
Well i suspect some MPs have been guilty of ball grabbing. I also suspect there are many in the house of both sexes who have balls. But lets not get too far into “that particular one” to quote Fred Dagg.
Maude is a retiring soul – keep her away from the sherry bottle and shes an absolute darling – get her near it and she takes her teeth out and starts removing items of clothing. She is my only reliable source. Maude represents the unheard kiwi voice – she’s the dear old lady you see pulling a trundler up to the supermarket taking an hour between cans of food trying to read whats written on them – she thinks “latte” is a fancy name for a letter – and raises a glass at the RSA to portraits of Michael Joseph Savage. There’s a lot of Maudes out there. They’ve been screwed over by successive Governments – left out of the equation. The Maudes had husbands who served their country and some didnt ever come back. They live and move and have their being – amongst us all – unrecognised – unsung heroes.
They move silently on our streets – mute witnesses to the continuing sell-off and sell-out of the generations who fought for a decent country and world.
Gods bless the Maudes of this world. Without-em we are screwed.