The decision is out and John Banks has been found guilty of electoral fraud. I will post a link to the judgment and some analysis later. Basically the Judge must have thought that Banks knew about the donations and engineered things so that the campaign treasurer could prepare a return recording the Dotcom and Sky City donations could be listed as being anonymous.
There was ample evidence. The splitting of Dotcom’s donation into two $25,000 cheques and the handing to Banks of the Sky City cheque persuaded the Judge that Banks knew where the donations came from. His failure to tell the treasurer and his signing of the returns which were clearly wrong persuaded the Judge that he deliberately signed a false return.
The history of the matter should be reflected on. It was started as a private prosecution by a company controlled by Graeme McCready and assisted by Penny Bright. The Crown only took over the case part way through the process. It is with the benefit of hindsight inconceivable that a prosecution against a Cabinet Minister had to be started by a private individual despite the fact the police had investigated the matter and there will need to be some reflection on this.
No doubt National is now scouring its list of bills seeing which ones are threatened. Will it last to the end of July?
And I do not know if he has been convicted yet …
Update: From Twitter it appears that his sentencing has been put off until August 1, 2014 which is just after the date that Parliament rises finally. I anticipate that he has not been convicted as yet and as I mentioned this morning I am sure his lawyer will apply for a discharge without conviction which will mean that he will continue as a Member of Parliament in the meantime. The timing and decision will raise questions as it lets Banks keep voting in the meantime …
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