Posted by Blogger Name. Category:
High Court
,
Hoist by his own petard
,
John Banks
,
Kim Dotcom
,
Len Brown
,
New Auckland Council Trust
,
Secret trusts
,
Transparency
The decision in R v John Archibald Banks is now available online. In between tasks at work, we are slowly reading through it.
But we've just come across this paragraph:
You can't escape the irony here. In his desire to be transparent, and to comply with the "spirit of the law", John Banks chose not to hide his donations behind a secret trust. On the other hand, Len Brown hid almost $500,000 worth of donations behind the secret and previously unknown New Auckland Council Trust.
Len Brown wasn't worried about the "spirit of the law", and hid his donations in a manner that no one will ever know who his backers were. John Banks has clearly erred in not declaring the Dotcom donation, and will pay a high price. His desire for transparency was commendable, even though some of his decisions were poor ones.
Mr Banks is hoist by his own petard.
