Former Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross has been found not guilty of charges laid over two large donations made to the National Party.
Justice Ian Gault delivered his verdict in the case at the Auckland High Court on October 5.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) charged Ross in early 2020 in relation to a $100,000 donation made to National in June 2017 and one of $100,050 in June 2018.
The former politician was charged alongside businessmen Yikun Zhang and Shijia (Colin) Zheng, and Hengjia (Joe) Zheng.
The Crown alleged the four men were involved in a plan to split two large donations made to National into smaller amounts to avoid having to disclose the identity of the true donor or donors to the Electoral Commission.
Ross, Zhang, and Colin Zheng each faced two charges of obtaining by deception.
Joe Zheng faced one charge of obtaining by deception and one charge of providing false or misleading information.
Zhang and the Zheng brothers also faced charges, along with two men and a woman whose names are suppressed, over a donation made to the Labour Party at a fundraising art auction in 2017.
Following a seven-week judge-alone trial that began on July 25, Justice Gault found the three people charged in relation to a donation to Labour not guilty of all charges.
He also acquitted Zhang and the Zheng brothers on the charges relating to the donation to Labour.
Justice Gault acquitted Ross of the two charges of obtaining by deception.
The judge found Zhang not guilty over the donation made to National in 2017, but guilty over the one in 2018.
Colin Zheng was found guilty in relation to the donations made to National in 2017 and 2018.
His brother Joe Zheng was found guilty over the donation made to National in 2018 and of lying to the SFO.
During the trial the Crown pointed to public statements Ross made to the news media in 2018 and during an interview with police in October that year as being what it alleged was evidence of his guilt.
“With the 2018 National Party donation, the Crown says Yikun Zhang was the true donor, or interests associated with Yikun Zhang,” prosecutor Paul Wicks KC said during the prosecution’s closing argument.
“Yikun Zhang, Colin Zheng, and Joe Zheng worked with Ross to conceal the identity of the true donor.
“Ross knew who the true donor was but provided names of sham donors to the National Party.”
Wicks also raised an interview Ross did with police in Wellington in October 2018 after he made public allegations about then-National leader Simon Bridges and election donations.
He said Ross told police he’d received a list of people’s names from an agent of the donor because the donor didn’t speak English.
“That is clear acknowledgement Ross knew or believed Yikun Zhang was the true donor.”
Wicks said Ross delivered a media statement in October 2018 during which he said the $100,000 donation had come in “split up”.
However, Ross’s defence counsel Ron Mansfield KC told the court the statements Ross made in 2018 about his own involvement in the donations were lies intended to exact revenge against Bridges after the pair fell out.
Zhang and the Zheng brothers will reappear in court to be sentenced in November.
