Iwi leader Roger Pikia steps down from some roles as Serious Fraud Office inquiry continues Featured
Roger Piki reperesenting Tahu Whaoa iwi in signing agreement with Prime Minister of Tonga 'Akilisi Pohiva to ake over Tonga Forests Products
13 February, 2017. An iwi leader has stepped down from prominent roles dishing out Treaty settlement money while the Serious Fraud Office investigates his financial activities.
Stuff revealed in January that Roger Pikia, a business consultant, adviser to the Maori King and chair of two Te Arawa iwi trusts, was being investigated by the SFO.
The inquiry came after it was revealed that $775,000 belonging to the Te Arawa River Iwi Trust (Tarit), which Pikia chairs, had been invested in Ka Ora Ltd, a health food company of which he is a director and previous shareholder.
And it was revealed that the small Tahu Whaoa iwi, which Pikia also chairs, had covered the $2.6 million in debts of a failing Tongan forestry company and had agreed to pay a further $3.5m in return for control of the firm.
Pikia is a board member of the Waikato River Authority, set up to distribute $250m of Treaty money to clean up the Waikato River.
He stepped down voluntarily from his roles as deputy chair and chair of the investment committee while the SFO inquiry was carried out, chief executive Bob Penter said.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing in relation to the WRA and Pikia could not be reached for comment.
Invoices and bank statements show that Pikia used a Tarit credit card while in Tonga in 2015, racking up $1500 at the Seaview restaurant and the Ladies and Gentlemen Club in Nuku'alofa.
Upon his return, Pikia stayed for a week at the Novotel Hotel at Auckland airport, notching up $1600 for accommodation and $435 for food, according to the invoice, which was sent to Tarit for payment.
Tarit's staff are understood to have questioned the expenditure as the organisation had no business in Tonga.
Pikia said at the time there was a mistake by his travel agent but no further explanation was forthcoming.
- Sunday Star Times
