The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has reached a settlement with former Botany MP Jami-Lee Ross in relation to two documents disclosed as part of its ongoing legal case against him.
A spokesperson for the SFO says that on May 12 last year, it “inadvertently disclosed” two documents to the defendants charged in the National Party donations case, which goes to trial in the Auckland High Court in September this year.
Ross is charged alongside three businessmen.
Those documents contained confidential information regarding donors to the National Party in 2017 and 2018.
“They were disclosed in error during the course of the SFO’s compliance with its normal disclosure obligations,” the spokesperson says.
“The SFO did not become aware of the error until July 26, 2020, when Ross reported he was in possession of the documents and expressed an intention to refer to the documents in the House of Representatives [Parliament] and to take legal advice about releasing them publicly if that was unsuccessful.”
On July 29 last year, the SFO brought an urgent application seeking orders requiring Ross to refrain from publicly referring to the documents and requiring they be destroyed.
“Interim orders were made against Ross that day, without him having any opportunity to defend the application.
“Ross asserts the materials were subject to the Parliamentary privilege that applies to material connected to proceedings in Parliament and that he could not be ordered to destroy them.
“Rather than continue to litigate the merits of that issue, the parties have reached a resolution.”
Ross has agreed to destroy the electronic copy of the documents in his possession and to provide the hard copy to his counsel so they can be held securely and only released, with prior notice to the SFO, for a proper purpose.
