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ational and the serious fraud office have expressed concerns recently about the growth of organised crime in new zealand poor accountability in public sector procurement weaknesses in border controls and an increase in fraud and cybercrime corruption involves activities such as bribery embezzlement nepotism fraud and conflicts of interest among others the crime and victims survey in 2024 revealed that fraud is the fastest growing crime in new zealand making up nearly 30 of all crimes online scams are particularly prevalent with research suggesting that two thirds of new zealanders have been targeted and one third have fallen victim to scams digital fraud schemes including business email compromises and crypto investment scams are becoming more sophisticated often utilising social engineering tactics and artificial intelligence a 2025 ministerial advisory group defined corruption as the abuse of power particularly in the context of organised crime the group highlighted that despite new zealand s reputation for being relatively free from corruption organised crime particularly drug importation represents a growing insider threat involving trusted individuals within institutions especially at the borders airport baggage handlers customs employees and police officers have been implicated in facilitating illicit activities organised crime rings often use employees to retrieve drug shipments before they are inspected a trend consistent with global findings on maritime drug seizures business related fraud is also increasing with external parties such as vendors or third party suppliers responsible for 84 of fraud incidents fraud in new zealand spans various sectors including local councils government agencies and educational institutions cyber enabled fraud procurement fraud and large scale scams have been on the increase particularly targeting businesses in high value industries like law firms and real estate the national cyber security centre reported that scams had caused financial losses exceeding nz 25 million in 2024 a 40 increase from 2023 however estimates suggest that the total cost of fraud may be as high as nz 2 billion annually including unreported cases tax evasion and avoidance are also significant issues tax avoidance primarily through multinational corporations shifting profits offshore results in revenue losses such as 167 million in 2023 conversely tax evasion which is illegal is estimated to cost new zealand around nz 1 2 billion annually though only a small percentage of offenders are prosecuted the national tax debt in 2024 stood at nz 8 5 billion with efforts to recover over 4 billion in unpaid taxes by mid 2025 benefit fraud is much smaller in scale with most cases involving overpayment recovery rather than criminal charges in the 2021 22 period benefit fraud led to overpayments of around nz 2 4 million although the total scale of welfare fraud in new zealand is believed to be between nz 10 20 million annually the prevalence of political corruption is unclear but concerns are growing about the impact of political lobbying and conflicts of interest the lobbying industry is unregulated in new zealand allowing former politicians to transition into lobbying roles potentially influencing policy decisions examples include lobbying efforts by industries like finance alcohol and tobacco which have contributed to weak regulations and public crises such as the finance company collapses and the leaky homes crisis a related concern is the lack of transparency surrounding political donations which can grant undue influence to wealthy individuals and corporations scandals involving the national party in 2018 and the new zealand first foundation in 2019 revealed loopholes in donation laws and raised questions about the integrity of the political process while corruption in new zealand s police force remains relatively low individual officers have been involved in several controversies including the manipulation of evidence and the use of prison snitches which have led to historical wrongful convictions the police national integrity unit is responsible for monitoring and investigating police misconduct international ranking edit new zealand is regarded as having one of the lowest levels of corruption in the world 1 transparency international s 2025 corruption perceptions index scored 182 countries according to the perceived corruption of their public sector on a scale from 0 highly corrupt to 100 very clean those countries were then ranked by their score the country ranked first was perceived to have the most honest public sector 2 in the 2025 index new zealand earned the fourth highest score worldwide at 81 3 in the asia pacific region note 1 new zealand s was the second best score after singapore 5 definitions of corruption edit although corruption is generally described as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain it can take different forms including bribery embezzlement nepotism extortion kickbacks money laundering fraud and conflicts of interest 6 in 2025 a ministerial advisory group defined corruption as the abuse of access or authority to advance the objectives of organised crime and said that despite new zealand s longstanding reputation for being free of corruption organised crime represented an insider threat whereby individuals in trusted positions are being targeted particularly at the borders to facilitate illicit drug importation 7 the auditor general of new zealand states that corruption is a type of fraud 8 and the ministry of justice says fraud is currently the most prevalent and fastest growing crime type in new zealand 9 money laundering is now estimated at 1 35 billion nzd per year reflecting illegal activity connected to drug markets tax evasion and other financial crimes 10 organised crime edit in may 2025 the ministerial advisory group on transnational serious and organised crime presented a report to cabinet on the growing threat to new zealand and the pacific posed by organised crime 11 it identified instances of corruption involving airport baggage handlers 12 customs employees assisting in the importation of illicit drugs 13 the exploitation of migrants and a police officer who was paid 70 000 by an organised crime group to share sensitive information from the police database 14 the report said new zealand is more susceptible than ever to corruption at our borders and that this is an increasing threat a majority of interceptions of drugs at our ports and airports involve trusted insiders helping to retrieve concealed shipments before customs inspects them consistent with an unpublished global report which estimates that 70 of maritime seizures worldwide involve insider cooperation 15 business related fraud edit however in business related fraud a report by kpmg in 2012 found that only 17 of perpetrators are employees or insiders within the victim organisation including both management and non management staff 16 fraud has been committed in local councils transport authorities educational institutions government ministries and by business consultants notable public sector examples include council employees manipulating procurement processes senior managers in government agencies and individuals in leadership roles at public entities 17 kpmg said that around 84 of perpetrators in business related fraud are external parties or outsiders such as vendors customers or third party suppliers these external actors often engage in procurement fraud cyber enabled fraud and large scale scams the national cyber security centre reported that in the first three months of 2025 more than half of the financial losses from scams were suffered by businesses especially those handling large financial transactions such as law firms and real estate agencies in 2024 scam losses came to nz 25 7 million up 40 from nz 18 3 million in 2023 however independent estimates suggest that the true annual cost of fraud including unreported incidents could range from nz 200 million to nz 2 billion 18 tax evasion and tax avoidance edit tax avoidance new zealand loses significant sums of revenue through legal tax avoidance mechanisms especially through multinational corporations shifting profits offshore for example in 2023 about usd 167 6 million in tax revenue was lost this way the tax justice network wants an end to global tax abuse that deprives countries of tax revenue 19 tax evasion tax evasion is a subset of avoidance that is illegal figures from inland revenue show that in the first half of the 2024 25 financial year audits uncovered 600 million in additional tax that should have been declared suggesting the annual total of taxes evaded by new zealanders would be in the vicinity of 1 2 billion only 60 80 tax evasion cases are prosecuted each year targeting just 0 01 of taxpayers this reflects the often complex and less visible nature of such offending 20 at the end of 2024 new zealand s tax debt including overdue unpaid and evaded taxes across all sectors stood at 8 5 billion a significant increase in prosecutions means inland revenue is on track to collect over 4 billion in overdue and evaded taxes for the financial year ending june 2025 21 benefit fraud in comparison most benefit fraud in new zealand is relatively small and the majority of benefit fraud cases involve overpayment recovery rather than criminal prosecution in the 2021 22 year 4 638 cases of benefit fraud were investigated but only 33 resulted in criminal prosecutions with 2 4 million identified as total overpayments 22 however the overall scale of welfare fraud in new zealand is in the range of 10 20 million per year although overpayments may not necessarily be the fault of the recipient in the year ending june 2024 the ministry of social development recorded 1 092 completed benefit fraud investigations resulting in a total of 12 24 million in overpayments for that financial year 23 personal victimisation edit according to data from the 2024 crime and victims survey fraud is now the most prevalent and fastest growing type of crime in new zealand accounting for around 29 of all crimes committed 24 recent research suggests that two thirds 67 of new zealanders have been targeted by online scams and one in three 33 have actually fallen victim 25 factors contributing to increase in fraud edit increased reliance on digital banking online shopping and digital communication platforms has created more opportunities for scammers and fraudsters to target both individuals and businesses from anywhere in the world the growth in digital asset investments has made people vulnerable to crypto investment scams which are harder to trace and regulate 26 business email compromise and unauthorised money transfers are among the fastest rising scams with high value incidents over 100 000 now being reported more frequently 27 scams and fraud schemes increasingly use social engineering psychological manipulation and even ai driven tactics to build trust and steal information or money 28 many victims feel shame that they fell prey to a scam and only about a third of victims report the incident at the same time regulatory and enforcement agencies are struggling to keep pace with rapidly evolving fraud strategies leading to a lag in effective prevention and response 29 potential political corruption edit undue influence of lobbyists edit a range of concerns have been raised over the access of lobbyists to members of parliament mps in new zealand unlike countries such as australia or canada the lobbying industry is largely unregulated and there is no dedicated watchdog or monitoring of lobbying activities lobbyists do not have to register disclose their clients or reveal their activities this has allowed new zealand to develop a revolving door whereby former politicians and ministerial staff move into lobbying roles after leaving government 30 for example kris faafoi a former cabinet minister became a lobbyist almost immediately after leaving politics 31 in 2024 former opposition national party leader simon bridges was appointed as chair of nzta by the national government raising concerns about whether such appointments undermine impartiality and integrity of the public service 32 this raises concerns about the misuse of privileged information and future employment influencing current official decisions and makes it difficult for the public to know who is influencing mps on critical issues fueling suspicion about potential backroom deals and undue influence by those with access 33 both the ministry of justice and independent observers have warned that excessive influence opaque lobbying and the appearance of mps trading favours behind closed doors threaten the integrity of new zealand s democracy 34 chumocracy edit auckland university economics professor robert macculloch believes that new zealand s economic prosperity is being hindered because top jobs in government agencies are being awarded to former politicians and connected insiders by the political party currently in power he says new zealand has become a chumocracy and that this blocks more deserving but non connected kiwis from aspiring to these roles contributing to the economic stagnation and the loss of living standards 35 politicians to illustrate his concern macculloch points out that after the 2023 election a number of sir john key era politicians were given high ranking jobs simon bridges was made chair of the waka kotahi paula bennett made chair of pharmac steven joyce was given the infrastructure advisory chair sir bill english was given the role of reviewing state housing and murray mccully was appointed to head an education inquiry 36 non politicians non politician vips appointed to important roles include former treasury secretary graham scott who finance minister nicola willis made chair of her social investment agency matt burgess who was a cabinet adviser under john key was returned to advise prime minister christopher luxon lester levy appointed by john key to chair the auckland district health board was appointed by chris luxon to chair health new zealand sir peter gluckman who was key s science adviser has been appointed to head the advisory group for the sciences and universities 37 examples edit lobbying by industry sectors has contributed to the adoption of light handed or weak regulation in areas such as finance and building standards with disastrous public consequences for instance the collapse of multiple finance companies since 2006 led to the loss of billions of dollars of investors money in 2011 this led to an overhaul of laws regulating finance companies and the creation of a new regulator the financial markets authority fma 38 the leaky homes crisis in new zealand producing costs of 11 billion estimated as half the true cost 39 has also been linked to lobbying efforts that prioritised industry profit over robust public protections 40 lobbying by particular industries especially in agricu...
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