Angered by perceived injustice over land taken from his forebears, Stephen James Henare fought a long legal battle to take control, from the Maori Trustee, forestry land in the Far North together with $1.096 million in cash. Within twelve months, the money was gone, with eleven dollars left in Trust bank accounts. Henare was sentenced to five years two months imprisonment for fraud and for lying to the Maori Land Court about his management of Trust assets.
The Parengarenga 3G Trust holds 511 hectares of forestry land in Taitokerau District. The Trust has some 400 beneficial owners. After protracted legal proceedings, pushed along primarily by Henare, P3G assets were transferred from the Maori Trustee to seven new trustees: Henare, his daughter, his sister, his brother and three others. Henare and his sister were signatories on Trust bank accounts. A Serious Fraud Office investigation found about $798,000 was fraudulently transferred over a twelve month period to bank accounts controlled by Henare. Payments totalling about $185,000 went to accounts controlled by his sister.
A Trust beneficiary, concerned about Henare’s activities, unsuccessfully asked the Maori Land Court to remove Henare as trustee. Henare lied to the Maori Land Court, saying there was ‘just under one million dollars’ sitting in Trust bank accounts. In fact, there was only some $400,000 left; about $600,000 had been fraudulently taken by that time. He was convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Henare failed in the most basic of trust obligations – honesty in the administration of funds, Justice Muir said. Henare pursued a calculated plan to ensure Trust domination by family members, oversaw signing authorities on bank accounts which delivered control to himself, all the while hypocritically invoking his commitment to Christian ideals, Justice Muir said. Trust money was used to hire a corporate box at the Warriors league club and to gamble at Auckland casino, before he was barred from the casino.
It was intended the one million dollars received by P3G from the Maori Trustee would fund P3G through its next crop rotation; paying for replanting, crop maintenance and rates until the next harvest. After Henare’s theft, P3G had to borrow against future cutting rights to fund its next crop rotation, at a potential cost of five million dollars in lost revenue.
Henare’s sister, Margaret Dixon was sentenced to twelve months home detention and ordered to pay $5000 reparations.
R. v. Henare – High Court (28.08.19)
19.156