● The Trusts Charitable Foundation (TTCF Inc) ● The Trusts Community Foundation Ltd (TTCF Ltd) ● Otago Rugby Football Union (ORFU) ● Professional Rugby ● Centre of Excellence for Amateur Sport ● Harness Racing ● Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) ● Gambling Commission ● Pokies ● Rorts ● Organised Crime ● Serious Fraud ● Political Interference
Comment received.
Martin Legge
Submitted on 2012/08/22 at 9:58 pm
I am very concerned about what Gambling Director, Maarten Quivooy is representing to the Dunedin Community.
Mr Quivooy claims to have no jurisdiction to investigate ORFU and the Centre of Excellence. He is playing you for fools – making you all believe that those two groups were your standard grant applicants just like Plunket, a local Kindergarten or some other worthy community group entitled to apply to TTCF for grants. Nothing is further from the truth.
The DIA have over many years, spent countless investigation hours, watching the abnormal money flow from South Auckland to Otago, always trying to prove ORFU’s interest in the Jokers Bars and hold those accountable. As was told to me, my testimony and documents provided the missing link for DIA.
The internal TTCF 2005 email between Hodder and the TTCF Trustees (in previous post) is pretty clear about the deal with Jokers. It refers to changes with the Jokers bars and that ORFU and Harness racing now each have a share in those bars and what each groups expectation is from the bars. There are more emails and DIA were provided with them in 2010.
This email makes it reasonably clear that ORFU did indeed have an “ownership” or “interest” in Jokers but it now seems DIA are the only ones who chose to ignore their previous concerns. Why you may ask?
Because any proof of “ownership” or “interest” in the Jokers pokie bars significantly changes things – it elevates ORFU into the legal definition of being a class 4 Venue Operator, over which DIA does have jurisdiction and a statutory obligation to act.
Even if TTCF Inc and Centre of Excellence no longer exist as entities it does not prevent DIA from holding TTCF’s Trustees to account for allowing what has occurred.
Read more + Emails
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Related Post and Comments:
15.8.12 Keeping ORFU sweet [email]
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Martin, I say, this seems like “good reference material for Cull and those DCC lawyers”.
Link to Comment (see 3News coverage + Cull’s solicitor named):
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Related Posts and Comments:
24.7.12 Sweet nothings [email], yo Laurie and Wayne!
24.7.12 Defamation, word is
26.6.12 Defamation
20.6.12 Mayor Cull leaves the planet
24.5.12 ORFU board announced
11.5.12 Dunedin shootout: mafia bosses
Media:
[ORFU bailout package]
16.3.12 ODT Dunedin City Councillors – how they voted
15.3.12 ODT Council debt write-off saves ORFU
Great stuff – Martin I’d take one exception to what you said here: the ORFU does still exist, because they avoided bankruptcy they’re still on the hook for any past misdeeds.
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{Text correction made to comment and associated post. -Eds}
Thanks Mike, what I am trying to get across (its complex and I’m not a lawyer) is that regardless of the status of ORFU and COE, the main responsibility lies with TTCF Inc and Ltd because they were and are the licensed Gambling Operator and have a legal duty not to enter into arrangements where groups or persons with an interest in bars get to control where the grants from those bars go.
DIA has a statutory obligation to satisfy itself that this did not occur and it is also able to lift the “corporate veil” on TTCF Inc and Ltd, to seek redress or recovery of those funds that were granted in such a manner.
My view now is that this is all too big because it involves “important people” and there has been political interference, so ORFU and TTCF and DIA are all working together to ensure no-one breaks ranks on this one.
And that, Martin, pretty much confirms the corruption involved here. Right to the top, no-one will entertain the prospect of besmirching the nation’s ‘iconic sport of rugby’. These people are in damage control like there was no tomorrow. On the local front, our Mayor and his council have the opportunity to clean this up once and for all. The opportunity is presented to them in the form of the defamation suit brought against the mayor by two leading rugby people in the persons of Laurie Mains and Wayne Graham. Rightly or wrongly, this must be defended in a court of law. Not behind closed doors. This way, a good defense counsel would bring out, under oath, all the facts pertaining to the ORFU’s alleged malpractices within the ‘pokies’ operational procedures. That this may implicate many people of note, is no excuse for not insisting on that procedure. If only our Mayor and council had the wit and the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing by their constituents. Sadly, it seems like they just don’t have that.
The bigger issue locally is the corruption involving the DCC. The bigger issue nationally is unethical gambling business, possible corruption involving DIA and the population of South Auckland being shamefully exploited. The defamation case is relevant as it could bring some of this stuff out but surely it is a sideshow? That said, I think the DCC should definitely support the mayor and insist the case is fought. Isn’t there also a counter-case here? I don’t see how Cull’s comments about the ORFU board were in the slightest contentious – they were very understated. Laurie Mains and Wayne Graham claiming defamation amounts to a scurrilous assertion that the major is a liar. They are just two old guys who were in charge of a shady, failed organisation building debts they knew they couldn’t pay – the mayor represents the City – these facts are clear public knowledge. Any defamation against the mayor is clearly more damaging – if they are seeking $1 million from Cull, then Cull should be seeking $20 million from them. They don’t have a leg to stand on.
ormk, hoping Cull’s counsel is inclined to something like that – but possibly counsel is more gutsy than the DCC or their insurers will allow, his CV may be robbed of a full circus.
What this case really needs is a healthy dose of sensationalism! [ODT turns tabloid ?]
Relocated from another thread. -Eds.
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Calvin Oaten
Submitted on 2012/08/31 at 10:01 am
For what it is worth here is the unabridged letter I had published today in the ODT. Why they see to abridge and by so doing destroy the message eludes me.
The alleged connection of the Otago Rugby Football Union (ORFU), and its involvement in the affairs of the ‘Pokies’ charity funder The Trusts Charitable Foundation (TTCF) as outlined in the Otago Daily Times (27.08.12), leaves many questions unanswered. Why would the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) refuse to divulge documents relating to the ORFU and these TTCF funds? Shouldn’t the DIA be obliged to monitor and control the use of what are in effect, legally, public funds?
Why should it mean involving the offices of the Ombudsmen to resolve this?
Is it in the citizens’ interest for the DCC to be entering into any arrangement to forgive the ORFU debts of some $480,000 of citizens’ treasure before the above
matters are resolved? The fact that the ORFU is essentially insolvent is possibly the reason why our Mayor Dave Cull made the allegedly intemperate remarks on National Radio. This has resulted in defamation suits being brought against our mayor by two ORFU people for sums amounting to $1 million. Should this not, in view of the situation, be defended in open court? Who is being best served in all of this? Certainly not the citizens.