Rumble set up the company RumbleboysNZ in September 2020 but he never traded under that name or his own and had connected the firm’s Inland Revenue details to his personal bank account.
Rumble was convicted on representative charges for electronically filing applications for the three Covid-19 relief schemes when he was not entitled to.
He was also convicted of two charges for using an electronically filed GST return to get money he wasn’t entitled to, relating to fraudulent GST returns he had made.
In 2020, the Government announced the CSP scheme, followed in 2021 by the RSP and in 2022 the SBCS.
All three were implemented using a “high trust” model so businesses could get help as they faced adverse effects from the pandemic.
Rumble set up RumbleboysNZ with him as the sole director and shareholder.
He applied for all three forms of pandemic relief over time and stated RumbleboysNZ was in business and entitled to the payments. He also filed two GST returns.