The Serious Fraud Office has cleared Winston Peters of fraud charges. He's crowing about it already, but contrary to his implication, the SFO didn't exactly say he was squeaky clean:
"We have found information showing that the laws relating to election returns may not have been complied with. Information shows that NZ First’s donations returns and the auditor’s reports on those returns for 2005 and 2007 appear to be inaccurate. The party’s election return for 2005 also appears to be incomplete."Violating electoral law is a serious business, and if there's any truth to the allegations around his 2007 return, he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But on fraud at least, he's innocent; the money went exactly where it was meant to go, and the only people deceived were the voters.Information had been passed onto investigations currently underway by the Electoral Commission and Police.
