Corruption & the quakes

[Lilith7]

A couple of ex public servants, hoping to make money after the quakes. Its difficult to believe that didn't know what they were doing was wrong.



https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/1...ristchurch 

"Two former public servants used official information for their own financial gain in post-quake Christchurch, a jury has found.

Gerard Gallagher and Simon Nikoloff were accused of the corrupt use of public information obtained during their time at the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Agency (Cera), and its successor Ōtākaro, between 2014 and 2016.

The charges – three each – related to the alleged corrupt use of official information.

Their approximately $150,000-a-year jobs were to find investors who could commit to redeveloping the post-quake city.

However, within months of their employment – later revealed in a 2017 Stuff investigation – Gallagher and Nikoloff started a private company and appeared to use their insider knowledge from Cera to their benefit.

One deal, if successful, could have seen Ashburton man Gerard Gallagher and his sons becoming the owners of $13 million worth of prime CBD land, undercutting the sale of public land in the meantime, the Crown said.

The prosecutor also alluded to email correspondence and witness testimony that accused Gallagher – with Nikoloff’s help – of using his Government job to suggest he would give a private business a discount on public land for that business to work with his and his sons’ private enterprise.

Their defence lawyers told the court they couldn’t be guilty of corruption if they had no idea what they were doing was wrong."