I wrote last week about Huljich Wealth Management KiwiSaver funds, a case which must continue to be kept in the public forum.The chairman of the fund is Don Brash, Governor of the Reserve Bank from 1988 to 2002 and leader of the National Party until 2005.
The ultimate owners of the company include trusts in which Brash and Auckland Mayor John Banks have separate interests. Both Brash and Banks are directors of the company.
The third director is one Christopher Huljich.
As noted last week, there are only three directors of this company, they are all very skilled, savvy, sharp operators.
In my view, the company has been in breach of the law over the way in which it sold its KiwiSaver product door-to-door.
Last week, Banks said he was too busy to know exactly what was going on at his company.
Last week, Brash went on the record to state he regretted the conduct of the company.
This week, Brash changed his tune and has indicated his company has not been transparent – this is over the issue of artificially inflating the performance of their KiwiSaver fund so that their multi-level marketers could tell people it was the highest-performing KiwiSaver fund.
They market their products to lower-paid people in poor areas.
The question I would like Brash and Banks to answer is, did they know this sort of conduct was going on and, if they did, why as directors did they allow such conduct to continue?
Secondly, why does the company continue to market its product targeting poor and vulnerable communities, knowing that they are likely to know nothing about the conduct of the company and the fact that none of the directors have any history of day-to-day management of investment funds?
Why do they continue to support a company where they make up two-thirds of the board, in the knowledge that unethical practices have been conducted?
When will they apologise and why won't they resign?
It is fair to say that the Huljich family, together with Banks and Brash, are well connected to very powerful groups of businesspeople in this country.
I believe they have been working overtime to try and close this story and play down their involvement.
I say this because at the talkback radio show we operate, management has been contacted to try and suppress this story.
The message is, regardless of how rich, powerful and well-connected people are, they should be accountable and they should not be able to manipulate the media from exposing their shortcomings.
The actions of a slick, sharp-dressing pastor called Brian Tamaki, who takes donations from congregations, are all over the newspapers.
His dealings have been widely reported but at least he stands at a pulpit and honestly takes the money from his flock.
The same cannot be said for Huljich Wealth Management's KiwiSaver fund.
And the question remains, why does Bishop Tamaki get all of the heat and not the Mayor or the former governor of the Reserve Bank?
Sunday News, March 7, 2010