{"id":422510,"date":"2026-05-11T16:30:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/422510\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:30:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:30:24","slug":"the-worldclear-files-interest-co-nz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/422510\/","title":{"rendered":"The Worldclear files | interest.co.nz"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gareth Vaughan (interest.co.nz),\u00a0Dan McGarry and Emanuel Stoakes (OCCRP),\u00a0Mattias Carlsson (Expressen), Yana Mickevich and Dzmitry Charapahau (BIC), Karolis Jursys, Gabriel\u0117 Navickait\u0117 and J\u016brat\u0117 Damulyt\u0117 (15Min.lt).
Interest.co.nz<\/a>\u00a0is grateful for funding support from the Brian\u00a0Gaynor\u00a0Business Journalism Initiative<\/a> in bringing this project to fruition.<\/p>\n

Fans still flock to the movie set, which has become a permanent tourist attraction.<\/p>\n

But just 50 kilometers away, in the riverside city of Hamilton, another epic story unfolded.<\/p>\n

From the 10th floor of one of Hamilton\u2019s few tall buildings, a financial services provider called Worldclear Ltd promoted slick international payment services and claimed to be handling transactions totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

Now, a leaked cache of documents from inside the firm, obtained by Interest.co.nz and shared with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Lithuania’s 15min.lt, the Belarusian Investigative Center (BIC), and Sweden’s Expressen, reveals an operation that relied on manual workflows and was found by inspectors to have failed to comply with several anti-money laundering requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With a staff of less than a dozen people, Worldclear processed millions in transfers for a colorful global clientele between 2014 and 2019, including: a wanted American-Canadian who was later found guilty of wire fraud, a Belarusian oligarch close to dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko, and a U.K. citizen later convicted over Europe\u2019s massive Cum-Ex tax swindle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The leaked files show Worldclear targeted higher risk clients facing banking or payment problems, though there is no evidence that Worldclear or its staff knowingly facilitated financial crimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reporters also found that two minority shareholders in the firm had convictions for financial crimes either before they took their stakes in Worldclear, or while they held shares. One of them, a Swede called Mikael Magnusson, is subject to a 2023 Interpol red notice for an unserved jail sentence in Panama for money laundering.\u00a0 Worldclear was not obliged to check the backgrounds of its minority partners. (Magnusson did not respond to reporters\u2019 questions.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mikael Magnusson pictured in Stockholm, Sweden. Credit: Sven Lindwall\/Expressen.<\/p>\n

Worldclear\u2019s founder, New Zealand businessman and former financial advisor David Hillary, denied any wrongdoing by himself or the firm, saying neither had ever \u201cknowingly or recklessly facilitated criminal offending, acted for the purpose of assisting any person to commit an offence, or designed or operated services for the purpose of concealing the source, destination, or beneficial connection of illicit funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe fact that a customer or transaction may be characterised as high-risk does not support, and should not be used to imply, that Worldclear or I knowingly or recklessly facilitated criminal offending.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leaked Worldclear files included client lists, private transaction records, and internal correspondence, and showed customers deposited money into Worldclear accounts held at banks in New Zealand, the U.S, and Europe, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Experts said that transferring funds through payment processors like Worldclear is usually slow and expensive \u2013 but that clients might use these firms because it could make it harder to trace their cash flows.<\/p>\n

\u201cComplexity is the friend of people with something to hide,\u201d said Ray Blake, a financial crime expert and director of The Dark Money Files, a podcast which seeks to explain how financial crime works and the impact it has. \u201cIt makes it harder for investigators \u2014 who might work for the police, the compliance department, the tax authorities, audit bodies or the news media \u2014 to untangle the transactions and figure out what has really happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron Arnold, a senior associate fellow at U.K. think tank RUSI\u2019s centre for finance and security, said that moving money through a financial services provider in a trusted jurisdiction like New Zealand would reduce the likelihood of transactions being held up by banks.<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing in New Zealand lowers the [regulatory] temperature and may allow you to hold accounts with banking institutions that you might otherwise not be able to,\u201d Arnold said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The firm was taken off New Zealand’s financial service providers register in February 2019 after it did not file confirmation that it was still operating, according to an email sent to reporters by the Companies Office, but it continued to exist. There is no evidence it was active after 2019 and Hillary did not respond to questions about its removal from the register or whether the company carried out any activity after that time.<\/p>\n

These days, Worldclear\u2019s former 10th floor office stands empty and the building it once worked out of is being turned into a premium hotel.<\/p>\n

The source of the leak<\/p>\n

At the centre of the Worldclear Files investigation is a massive cache of internal files leaked by Richard Whitham, an ex-Worldclear employee. The data provides a window into the firm\u2019s inner workings.<\/p>\n

To ensure the integrity of the reporting and independently establish information about Worldclear\u2019s clients and their transactions, reporters spent months cross-checking leaked files against external documents, including bank statements and court papers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whitham’s decision to come forward followed a fallout with Worldclear founder Hillary who accused him of misappropriating money from the firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whitham was arrested in a banking centre in Singapore in 2018. He had originally faced seven charges of Criminal Breach of Trust, a serious crime to which he pled not guilty. Eventually the charges were changed and in 2021 Whitham pled guilty<\/a> to removing funds worth more than $1 million from Singapore under the country\u2019s Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By that time, he had been on remand in Singapore\u2019s Changi prison for more than two years. Whitham was given a 38-month sentence but was soon released.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whitham told OCCRP\u2019s partner interest.co.nz: \u201cI’ve done some things there that obviously are not right. I\u2019ve been naive and stupid\u2026 I\u2019ve been painted as the bad guy. You need to see the total picture.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hillary said \u201cthere was no falling-out [with Whitham] prior to his departure. Mr Whitham misappropriated funds and departed immediately thereafter. He was subsequently arrested, charged, pleaded guilty, and convicted.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Former Worldclear employee Richard Whitham. Credit: Aubrey Belford\/OCCRP.<\/p>\n

A DIY operation with compliance issues<\/p>\n

Hillary founded Worldclear as a financial services provider in 2014. According to its now defunct website, the firm offered \u201ctransactional banking services to international corporate and institutional customers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A screenshot of the \u201cWho We Are\u201d section of the Worldclear website. Credit: Screenshot\/WayBackMachine\/world-clear.com.<\/p>\n

At its launch, promotional articles cited Hillary as saying Worldclear wanted to meet a demand for multi-currency payment clearing services. It could do so thanks to its \u201cstate-of-the-art banking facility\u201d and the backing of partners including \u201cmajor banks, accounting firms, and top-tier legal advisors,\u201d Hillary is quoted as saying<\/a>. \u201cWe offer a streamlined application process, while adhering to the highest security standards and AML (anti-money laundering) controls.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leaked internal data from Worldclear shows that it used third-party software, including one called EBANQ, to provide clients with an online platform to make payment and transfer requests.<\/p>\n

Behind the interface, Worldclear relied heavily on manual work. For example, according to the leaked files, staff would set up EBANQ accounts for clients and then \u201caction\u201d transfers themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Analysis of more than a dozen internal spreadsheets suggested that staff manually tracked and managed client funds. Daily excel workbooks contained warnings for employees, reminding them to confirm that balances lined up and giving them instructions to fix unreconciled transactions, such as bounced payments. (Hillary did not respond to a request to comment on Worldclear\u2019s workflow processes.)<\/p>\n

Despite these manual workflow processes, the sums involved were substantial. In an internal document from December 2017, Worldclear said it had “grown to process about NZ$500m in payment values per year.”<\/p>\n

But as Worldclear apparently thrived, government inspectors found it had failed to fully comply with the anti-money laundering regulations it had to adhere to by law as a financial institution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among the leaked files, reporters discovered a report from New Zealand\u2019s Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) that found Worldclear was only partially compliant with anti-money laundering requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The DIA, which oversaw Worldclear\u2019s compliance with New Zealand\u2019s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML\/CFT) Act, wrote the report after carrying out an on-site inspection of the firm in March 2018.<\/p>\n

The agency found that Worldclear did not have adequate controls for \u201cmonitoring, examining and keeping written findings relating to complex or large transactions, unusual patterns or strange transactions or any other activity that may be connected to money laundering or terrorist financing.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also found that the firm did not consistently carry out customer due diligence, describing Worldclear\u2019s background check process as \u201cad hoc.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report said that Worldclear relied on respondent banks to do enhanced customer due diligence \u2014 a level of scrutiny applied to clients deemed to be high risk \u2014 and concluded that the company had no functioning process to check Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs).<\/p>\n

\u201cWorldclear as a whole operates in an extremely high risk environment and does need to go above the normal expectations to verify its ultimate customers; the current process relies so heavily on third parties, however the definitive responsibility lies with Worldclear,\u201d the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The DIA issued a reprimand known as \u201cremedial instructions,\u201d which required Worldclear to address all the areas in which it was not fully compliant and have an independent audit within nine months of the report. However, the DIA told reporters that in 2019 Worldclear told them it had ceased operating the previous year and its supervision ended without a follow-up.<\/p>\n

Reporters shared the DIA findings with two leading New Zealand anti-money laundering experts, auditor and consultant Martin Dilly and barrister Fiona Hall.<\/p>\n

Dilly said he believed the report\u2019s findings suggested “non-compliance which potentially meets the threshold for criminal penalties under the AML\/CFT Act” and arguably should have been shared with the police.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hall expressed surprise that Worldclear had not faced stronger action from the DIA.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow Worldclear got away scot-free,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Asked why Worldclear\u2019s case was not referred to law enforcement, the head of the DIA\u2019s anti-money laundering unit Serge Sablyak said it would be rare for criminal non-compliance charges to be brought without trying other regulatory measures first, although serious cases could be referred to the police. In Worldclear\u2019s case, the time limit for prosecution of criminal non-compliance charges has now passed, he said.<\/p>\n

Hillary claimed to reporters that the findings were \u201cfalse\u201d and \u201cdamaging\u201d and that the DIA\u2019s assessment \u201cfar exceeded [its] legitimate supervisory feedback function.\u201d He said the DIA had \u201cambushed Worldclear with a post-visit report purporting to find serious non-compliance… They are not lawful findings of contravention.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn seven out of the eight inspection items with \u2018not met\u2019 findings, the DIA officials did no inspection of Worldclear\u2019s records or controls relating to the item at all,\u201d Hillary claimed. \u201cIn the remaining one, the DIA officials inspected the relevant controls and records and found no non-compliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

David Hillary\u2019s LinkedIn profile. Credit: Screenshot\/LinkedIn\/david-hillary-87251960.<\/p>\n

Hillary accepted that the report \u201cfound Worldclear to be seriously non-compliant,\u201d but described the conclusion as \u201cbaseless.\u201d He said the DIA did not take the step it should have if Worldclear were non-compliant \u2014 issue a formal warning \u2014 and therefore did not \u201cinstitutionally [take] the position expressed in [the] report.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to Hillary\u2019s allegations, the DIA said that nothing in its records indicated that the findings were deficient or misleading.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fugitive fraudster\u00a0<\/p>\n

The leak showed that the 2018 report was not the first time that the DIA identified deficiencies in Worldclear\u2019s compliance procedures. A DIA report in 2015 said Worldclear had accepted non-certified due diligence documents for some of its customers.<\/p>\n

In 2016, a separate report by an independent auditor \u2014 found among the leaked records \u2014 said that Worldclear had met its mandatory anti-money laundering requirements. But in a letter attached to the report, the auditor made numerous recommendations for improvements to Worldclear\u2019s risk assessment and customer due diligence processes. The letter questioned the onboarding process for a client called West Kingdom Holdings,\u00a0 describing how a beneficial owner for the company had been flagged as a \u201cpotential high risk customer\u201d in a screening scan Worldclear had done via a compliance platform called MemberCheck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the letter does not say who the beneficial owner in question was, reporters discovered it was Michael Wilson \u2013 an American-Canadian who was facing extradition from Canada to the U.S. at the time over a multimillion-dollar investment fraud.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Michael Wilson’s passport. Credit: Supplied.<\/p>\n

Leaked transaction records show Worldclear onboarded West Kingdom Holdings in December 2015, after the MemberCheck warning. Wilson had not yet been convicted by that time, but it was a matter of public record that he had been indicted on multiple charges<\/a> of wire fraud. His brother had already been sentenced for his role in the fraud.<\/p>\n

Asked about the MemberCheck scan, Worldclear founder Hillary said it had been referred to him for assessment and he had asked for further information, including a Canadian criminal record check that did not show any conviction. He said he had \u201cincorrectly\u201d concluded that the Worldclear applicant was not the same person as the one who had been flagged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWorldclear did not knowingly or recklessly carry out any transactions for Mr Wilson or his company while believing or suspecting that he was the person referred to in the MemberCheck flag, or that he had been accused of, involved in, or charged with financial crimes,\u201d Hillary said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within weeks of becoming a Worldclear client, Wilson transferred $1.5 million to a West Kingdom bank account in the Caribbean. Soon after his payments landed, Wilson chartered a private jet, and \u2014 along with his wife, mother, and three dogs \u2014 fled Canada for Vietnam.<\/p>\n

Wilson was arrested in Vietnam in June 2016 and returned to the U.S. in December that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An affidavit from an FBI investigator in a U.S. forfeiture application in 2016 said the use of Worldclear as an intermediary had \u201caided in disguising the true source of the funds transferred.\u201d\u00a0 The following year, a federal judge in the case ordered the forfeiture of four accounts containing around $750,000 at Euro Pacific Bank.<\/p>\n

(Internal Worldclear documents show that Euro Pacific Bank was also a Worldclear client. It is no longer licensed to do business after being suspended by Puerto Rican authorities in 2022 over imminent insolvency. The bank had relocated to Puerto Rico in 2017.)<\/p>\n

Euro Pacific Bank did not respond to a written request for comment. Peter Schiff, who owned the bank, said it had been closed for four years and that he didn\u2019t \u201cknow anything about\u201d the Wilson case.<\/p>\n

Wilson pleaded guilty<\/a> to wire fraud over his investment scam in 2017 and was sentenced to 108 months in prison<\/a> in 2018. He was released in January 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hillary said that once \u201cWorldclear received further information linking Mr Wilson to investment frauds\u2026Worldclear did not provide any further services to Mr Wilson, either directly or through any associated entity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked where the funds that passed through Worldclear came from, Wilson told reporters: \u201cTo the best of my recollection after ten years, the funds related to a private metals transaction. I don’t have records available to reconstruct the details.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI served my sentence, completed my probation, and have focused since on family and travel. I’ve tried to put that chapter behind me and move forward constructively.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a document sent to New Zealand Police that discussed some of Worldclear\u2019s clients and business, Hillary conceded that Wilson\u2019s transfers via Worldclear \u201cappear to have been the proceeds of [Wilson\u2019s] investment frauds,\u201d but argued the money had already been \u201csuccessfully laundered\u2026before any of the funds were sent through Worldclear.\u201d (The document was connected to an issue over mutual legal assistance and neither Hillary nor Worldclear were under investigation. Hillary did not respond to reporters\u2019 questions about it.)<\/p>\n

Not a \u2018normal bank\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

The leaked internal files suggest that Worldclear targeted clients who may have been having problems with mainstream banks. One draft marketing document in the cache reads: \u201cCorrespondent banking problems?? USD payment problems?? Accounts closed??…We may be able to help.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Worldclear\u2019s draft marketing document. Credit: Supplied.<\/p>\n

This business model was echoed in a 2018 statement Hillary made to police, where he said that Worldclear \u201ccaters to clients who normal banks won\u2019t have,\u201d describing their difficulties as usually \u201cdue to their location in the world or their business structure.\u201d (The statement was given as part of an investigation against former Worldclear employee Whitham.)<\/p>\n

Hillary declined to comment on specific clients or transactions, but denied any wrongdoing, reiterating that \u201cneither Worldclear nor I knowingly or recklessly facilitated criminal offending.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among those who turned to Worldclear was Andrew Strempler, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud related to the illegal sale of prescription drugs in the U.S. in 2013. Strempler applied for two company accounts in 2016, following his release from jail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Minority Worldclear shareholder Magnusson recommended Strempler as a Worldclear client to Hillary, describing him as \u201can honest and reliable person,\u201d the leaked records show. Strempler declared his conviction to Worldclear, which deemed him of \u201cacceptable character\u201d to become a client. Strempler did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The leaked files also show Worldclear processed at least $2 million in 2017 on behalf of Guenther Klar, a British citizen who was later convicted in Denmark in 2024 of defrauding Danish tax authorities of $45 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to court records, Klar stored some of his tax fraud proceeds in the Cayman Islands bank Global Fidelity, which had a Worldclear account. In the years that followed, Global Fidelity made large payments on his behalf via Worldclear:<\/p>\n

In October 2017, Klar paid $1 million to a United Arab Emirates company via Global Fidelity\u2019s Worldclear account. A leaked compliance letter shows Klar described the payment as part of a $2 million loan.
\n\tTwo months later Klar made another $1 million payment via Global Fidelity, which used its Worldclear account to transfer the funds. The Worldclear files show Klar as the originator and the beneficiary of that payment, with two different apartments at the Ritz-Carlton in Dubai listed as his sending and receiving account addresses.\u00a0
\n\tHe also used Global Fidelity \u2014 which in turn used Worldclear \u2014 to pay expenses including hotels, flights, school tuition fees, flowers, and designer shoes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Authorities in Luxembourg told reporters Klar is in detention awaiting trial for aggravated tax fraud and tax evasion. Requests for comment sent to his former lawyer and the Luxembourg prisons service went unanswered. Hillary declined to comment on Klar\u2019s transactions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although Klar\u2019s tax fraud scheme was not public knowledge and Klar was not under investigation at the time of the transactions described above, anti-money laundering expert Dilly questioned why Klar and Global Fidelity routed any of his payments in such a complex way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere would be so many easier ways to do this, more cost-effectively, more efficiently, more quickly, than putting them through an intermediary at the other end of the world,\u201d Dilly said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Light-touch regulations \u2018risk\u2019 to New Zealand\u2019s reputation<\/p>\n

The new information revealed in the Worldclear files raises questions over whether the firm should have been more closely scrutinized at the time it was operating \u2013 and whether New Zealand\u2019s light-touch regulations and controls on financial services providers are leaving the door open to potential abuse, experts said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Worldclear was listed on New Zealand\u2019s financial service provider register as offering services including money transfers and foreign currency exchange.<\/p>\n

That meant that despite its claimed high volume of transactions, apparent appetite for high-risk clients, and its provision of some banking-style offerings, it was not subject to the same level of scrutiny as a registered bank would have been.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Simon Papa, who previously worked as a lawyer at New Zealand\u2019s Financial Markets Authority and is now director of Auckland law firm Cygnus Law, which specializes in financial services, said a listing on the financial service providers register did not equate to rigorous vetting. \u201cThe register is more about bringing yourself to the attention of the authorities and the public,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor things like money remittance, currency exchange, acting as a custodian, you don’t need a license to do that, you just need to be on the financial service providers register. So in that sense we’re still fairly lightly regulated,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s regulations have come in for criticism in recent years from global anti-money laundering watchdog the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).<\/p>\n

One weakness that has been flagged by the FATF is the lack of requirement for financial services providers like Worldclear to vet minority shareholders.<\/p>\n

The chief executive of Transparency International\u2019s New Zealand branch, Julie Haggie, said the watchdog has \u201cwarned the [Justice] Ministry that we need to fix the problems before our next FATF review, or risk being greylisted, which is not good for New Zealand.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Worldclear\u2019s case, reporters found that two of the firm\u2019s minority shareholders had convictions for financial crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Swedish man Magnusson took a stake in 2015 via his software company EBANQ Holdings B.V., registered in the Seychelles, which supplied Worldclear\u2019s customer-facing EBANQ platform.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Magnusson was sentenced to nine years in prison in Panama on money laundering charges. Magnusson did not have the conviction at the time his company acquired shares in Worldclear. Reporters discovered that in 2023, four years after Worldclear ceased operations, Panama successfully requested an Interpol red notice for Magnusson\u2019s arrest. (The red notice was issued under his previous name Carl Michael Magnusson. He changed his name to Mikael Magnusson in 2018.)<\/p>\n

EBANQ Holdings B.V. continued to hold a stake in Worldclear until October 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Magnusson did not respond to questions sent by email, and declined to comment when approached by reporters from Expressen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hillary declined to comment on Magnusson\u2019s shareholding in Worldclear or his conviction. He did not respond when asked if Magnusson had informed him of the Panamanian sentence.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mikael Magnusson pictured in Stockholm, Sweden. Credit: Sven Lindwall\/Expressen.<\/p>\n

Magnusson currently lives in Stockholm. Malin K\u00fchn, senior public prosecutor at Sweden\u2019s Unit for International Judicial Cooperation, said that Swedish law does not permit Swedish citizens to be extradited to a third country outside the EU.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reporters found that a company owned by a Venezuelan man called Arturo Jose Trujillo Villalobos also took a stake in Worldclear in 2017 and held it until April 2022. Trujillo had been convicted in 1999 of conspiracy to sell forged Venezuelan government bonds.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Arturo Jose Trujillo Villalobos\u2019s passport. Credit: Supplied.<\/p>\n

Trujillo did not respond to a request for comment. Hillary told reporters that Trujillo had never been convicted of any financial crime \u201cso far as I knew then and know now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

New ventures\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is unclear what relationship Magnusson, Trujillo, and Hillary had prior to Worldclear. However an account in the name of David Hillary wrote a glowing Amazon review of Magnusson\u2019s 2013 book \u201cThe Land Without a Banking Law: How to Start a Bank With a Thousand Dollars,\u201d six weeks before Worldclear was founded.<\/p>\n

Magnusson\u2019s book features instructions on how to register a company as a financial services provider in New Zealand at a low cost \u201cwith the legal capacity to offer banking services to any number of clients resident anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Magnusson’s book \u201cThe Land Without a Banking Law: How to Start a Bank With a Thousand Dollars\u201d on Amazon. Credit: Screenshot\/Amazon.<\/p>\n

Hillary\u2019s apparent review describes Magnusson as \u201cthe master who worked on creating these structures for many years,\u201d and praises him for defending freedom in financial services. The review characterizes government regulation as a \u201cdisease.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sentiments seem to tally with views Hillary has expressed elsewhere. In a blog which he ran called Sue 4 Insult, last updated in March 2019, Hillary described tax as a kind of \u201chuman parasitism.<\/p>\n

Hillary declined to comment on his past relationship with Magnusson and Trujillo. Magnusson and Trujillo did not respond to detailed questions about their past connections with each other, or with Hillary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reporters found that the three men have since been involved with various companies registered in New Zealand and Sweden.<\/p>\n

In May 2025, Hillary registered a New Zealand company called Trusfinco Baninvest, with Trujillo serving as the firm\u2019s director. Its website said it was a financial service provider, but that site has since disappeared. New Zealand\u2019s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said Trusfinco had never been registered as a financial services provider.<\/p>\n

Hillary and Trujillo did not respond to questions about Trusfinco.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Magnusson continues to develop the EBANQ software once used by Worldclear.<\/p>\n

In December 2025, EBANQ\u2019s website described how it offers its own Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) module, which it said would enable instant virtual IBAN creation and streamlined payment operations.<\/p>\n

Anti-money laundering expert Dilly warned that New Zealand\u2019s image as low-risk for corruption still makes it a potential target for abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Failure to ensure that reputation is not being exploited would endanger New Zealand\u2019s global standing, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are not seen as being trusted and well-regulated, then our lives all get a lot harder and a lot more expensive in terms of dealing with the world economy. It’s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Gareth Vaughan (interest.co.nz),\u00a0Dan McGarry and Emanuel Stoakes (OCCRP),\u00a0Mattias Carlsson (Expressen), Yana Mickevich and Dzmitry Charapahau (BIC), Karolis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-422510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}