The money was deposited into his accounts in sums of up to $10,000 nearly every day over a six-month period, then withdrawn as cash by the \u2018money mule\u2019 on behalf of a group he called \u2018The Syndicate\u2019.<\/p>\n
But when he threatened to expose the tax evasion scam, the \u2018money mule\u2019 claimed he was kidnapped in November 2023, assaulted and told to keep quiet or he would be killed.<\/p>\n
With the encouragement of a supporter, the 33-year-old approached Inland Revenue and was interviewed about the tax scam by Tauranga-based investigators the following month. <\/p>\n
He also told them about the kidnapping and was reassured that they would refer his complaint to the police for further investigation, as Inland Revenue had a duty to report serious harm.<\/p>\n
However, Inland Revenue did not report the alleged kidnapping.<\/p>\n
Detectives in the Tauranga CIB only learned about the kidnapping complaint through a Herald investigation in May, then moved swiftly to interview the \u2018money mule\u2019 within a week.<\/p>\n
This meant nearly 18 months had passed since Inland Revenue first learned of the serious criminal allegations and potentially jeopardised the gathering of evidence.<\/p>\n
Last week, Detective Sergeant Aaron Williams said the investigation was ongoing. <\/p>\n
He declined to comment on specific details but confirmed the case was opened only after the alleged victim made a complaint directly to police.<\/p>\n
The alleged kidnapping victim told the Herald that the Inland Revenue staff said they would pass his complaint to police, and he trusted them to do so. <\/p>\n
Wishing to be identified only by his surname, Singh entered New Zealand on a student visa which had expired in 2017.<\/p>\n
As time went on, he did not report the alleged assault to the police at the time because, as an illegal immigrant, Singh was scared about being deported or going to prison in New Zealand himself for money laundering.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of dollars were deposited into the bank account of the ‘money mule’ each week, then withdrawn in cash as part of an alleged tax evasion scam. Illustration \/ Paul Slater<\/p>\n
So he waited. When Singh eventually learned that Inland Revenue had not told the police about his complaint, the \u2018money mule\u2019 said he felt betrayed. <\/p>\n
\u201cI trusted them. Now I don\u2019t feel safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Inland Revenue declined to explain why the alleged kidnapping was not reported to police, citing clauses in New Zealand\u2019s tax law which states \u201call sensitive revenue information\u201d must be kept confidential.<\/p>\n
\u201cSection 18 of the Tax Administration Act prevents us from commenting on matters specific to individual taxpayers so we will not be responding to these questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for Simon Watt, the Minister of Revenue, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Inland Revenue and the police have a memorandum of understanding which allows information to be proactively shared for the prevention, detection and investigation of serious crimes.<\/p>\n
However, such legal frameworks are not applied consistently across government agencies, according to one of the ministerial advisory group\u2019s reports <\/a>to Cabinet Minister Casey Costello.<\/p>\n The expert panel heard \u201crepeatedly\u201d that constraints on information sharing meant law enforcement agencies could not keep pace with the rapidly evolving criminal landscape.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we have said before \u2013 organised crime can move at the speed of digital technology, but enforcement agencies can only move at the speed of the law,\u201d the panel wrote in July.<\/p>\n \u201cThe public reasonably expects government agencies to use information that it has collected to lawfully target organised crime, both domestically and internationally. That requires the information to be proactively shared. That is not happening.<\/p>\n \u201cThere also appears to be a deeply rooted culture of a risk-averse approach towards proactive sharing of information.\u201d<\/p>\n In particular, Inland Revenue (IR), which holds tax records that can be crucial to investigations into organised crime, was singled out for mention.<\/p>\n \u201cIR has told us that it recognises the approach it has traditionally taken to information sharing may have been too conservative, and there is scope to be more pragmatic,\u201d the expert panel wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cThis mirrors feedback we received from a number of other government agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n The advisory group recommended the establishment of a national plan, rather than separate ones for individual government departments, to clearly set out what information can be shared.<\/p>\n This national framework should be accompanied by a \u201cdata lake\u201d \u2013 a platform, or centralised repository, to make the data easy to search.<\/p>\n To move away from a risk-averse culture, the panel also recommended that information-sharing benchmarks be set as performance measures for the chief executives of government departments.<\/p>\nThe ‘money mule’ says he was kidnapped and beaten by a group of men, including with a baseball bat, after threatening to blow the whistle on the alleged tax evasion scam. Illustration \/ Paul Slater<\/p>\n