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HERALD WEEKLY ISSUE 429 : 15 October 2008

Crimminal case of the century continues

The conspiracy trial before Justice Nicholson has been an endurance test for the witnesses who are examined by the prosecution, then cross examined in minute detail by the defence and re-examined by the prosecution.
So far, the court has heard from 7 witnesses out of 67 having heard from George Pitt, (businessman), Henry Heather (businessman), Minister Tangata Vavia OMIA), Bob Williams (ex Fraud Unit), Tenga Mana (ex OMIA), Keith Niederer (businessman) and Rob James (businessman).
This week, the witnesses were Tenga Mana, former director of Technical Services in OMIA was re-examined on Monday after a gruelling day in the witness box all day Friday. Mana was under cross examination and faced with documentary evidence where he finally conceded that OMIA had accepted the quotes on heavy machinery to the value of $675,000 to be submitted submission to Cabinet without having gone through a tender process.
Keith Niederer, veteran of 70 years experience
Next witness to take the stand was Keith Niederer of Pelmec Industries whose importance as a witness is that Niederer is recognized as an expert in his field after 70 years in the industry. His expertise is recognized in New Zealand and in the Pacific to which he has exported machinery since 1969.
His vast experience and expertise in quarrying and associated heavy machinery including primary crushers, secondary crushers, jaw crushers or hammer mill crushers or hydraulic and the merits of each and reliability for use in roading and airports at the right budget were explored in minute detail.
After he sold his business for financial reasons in 1989, he had started in business again to provide jobs for his four Niuean workers of 18 years service when the workers told him the new owners were letting them go. And he had known and dealt with Chris Vaile for many years and received advice throughout the years, with Niederer having been involved in the construction of the airport in 1971. Much correspondence was shown on Monday with correspondence back and forth from Vaile, who was instrumental in getting the crusher orders for Atiu and Mangaia. Niederer said he paid him a 10% fee for his providing advice on the best shipping and who to deal with and ‘saving time and money’ for Niederer’s company.
In the afternoon, Paul Davison QC cross examined the witness beginning with asking how well he knew Junior Areai before he visited his office to present the bank draft for $69,230 bank draft for the purchase of the crushers? The witness was adamant that he did not ‘know’ Junior at all beforehand.
But didn’t you already know Areai from when he was with Projects Hire (a NZ company) before he came in and paid you for the Atiu crusher? No, the elderly witness said Junior may well have been with Projects Hire, but he does not remember him.
Did Junior ask commission of $2000? Junior did ask for money but he said it was for rent and he would pay it back when he got back to Rarotonga but we never saw him again. But why give him any money at all? Sometimes, islanders sometimes come to the office and ask for assistance which seems to be an island way of doing things and if the company can help they will.
Did Junior not discuss the purchase of any crusher? No, but he did look at Atlas Copco air compressors and other equipment.
Did he bring his whole file or just a selection of documents? Witness said it was just a selection from his Cook Islands file. What about your 2002 diary? It’s in NZ and nobody has ever asked him for it before.
Did Mr Mana from OMIA ever ask him about recommending Graham Ferguson? No he had not and if anyone were going to visit the islands, he would have come himself or else send someone from a company that worked with his and not for his competitor. Besides Ferguson is a geologist and at the time only had limited experience in quarrying but now had 7 or 8 years experience.
Could it be that OMIA had not realized that Niederer Machinery was a different entity from Keith Niederer t/as Pelmec Industries? Maybe, but regular customers knew but conceded that occasional customers may get confused about the names.
Did Charles Koronui call you to discuss the crusher in October? Someone did call, might have been him. Later in 2002, did you meet him when he called into your office? Yes and we discussed the state of the crushers and the issues of the hammer-mill jamming?
Did you tell him that you have delivered the machinery and someone else ought to be called to fix it? Yes, that’s because a hammer mill is not a technical item and if it was not functioning properly, it must have been occurred in transit.
What about the correspondence of 29 August 2002 to Junior about the Mangaia crusher plant and giving your bank account details for depositing the payment? Yes.
Did you ever meet Norman George? Yes, he rang me at the office to say he was on his way back to the Cook Islands from a Sydney trip and arranged to meet at the Travelodge in Mangere.
Did Junior take you there? No, it is easy to get to the motel and we had a brief chat with the Minister who told Niederer that the Cook Islands were looking at purchasing and that people would be in touch with him about that. Did he discuss crushers? No, it was a general discussion and not about technical matters.
Davison QC asks the witness to look at his own deposition which he signed on 21 May 208 in the presence of Detective Inspector Mark Franklin and to consider his questions very carefully.
Did he give you the deposition to read before he visited you, or was that the first time you had ever seen it? Or did you read it first or did you sign it assuming that if a detective gave it to you, it must be right? Can’t remember said the elderly witness.
Rob James of Eagle Spares
Last on the stand for Tuesday was Rob James from Eagle Spares who was quizzed by Mike Ruffin who is the chief prosecutor in this case regarding a fax header to do with a SWI double drum roller. The fax was a note handwritten by the witness, who agreed but denied he had written the $7,000 on the fax sheet or the date at the top. The witness dded that he often used the fax headers as a general notepad and it may not have actually been intended as a fax message.
He was quite definite that someone else wrote the figure $7,000 on the fax sheet and asked the court to the ‘7’ in the date of 27 June that he did write with the first date. Not only that but he did not write his dates with dots between the day and month of the date.
There were two rollers, one smaller than the other, so how could both had the price of $65,000 FOB?
The witness said price depends on the condition of the machine adding that the tyres were worth $1,000 each on the rollers.
Under cross examination by Davison QC, the witness told the court that Eagle Spares sometimes pays commission when overseas customers are referred but not often. In that case, the company requires an invoice and the go between is treated as an agent. What if it were a Government agent? No. we would not pay.
Did Junior ask you for 10% commission? No. Was anything ever said about commission? No but he did ask for a refund on a roller and told the company the Government wanted to buy computers from the refunded money. Did you not tell Detective Inspector Mark Franklin that you did pay commissions? If I did, it was just a generalization that if we pay commissions, we add it to the total price.
Under more questioning, the witness could not recall the details as to whether there had ever been a conversation about whether commissions were payable to Junior or not.
Are you just surmising or do you actually recall?
Defence put it to witness that what he said in his statement was what he was doing in his transactions with Junior where he added commissions to the sale. Witness did not think he said that to the detective inspector.
This denial was met with more questioning about his role as sales person and knowing the financial strategy of building in commissions into the invoice? Yes if there is a middle man. When asked if he ad ever met Norman George or Charles Koronui, the witness said no he had not.
Court continues from 9am on Wednesday morning.