Yes, the Nat’s economic policies are a crime against common sense and the vast majority of the people. But currently in the news is the other kind of economic crime – white collar crime – fraud and tax evasion. We have a new report on the impact:
Economic crime costs NZ billions each year, Govt reveals
White collar frauds and economic crime costs the country billions of dollars each year, government officials have concluded.
Minister for the Serious Fraud Office Anne Tolley said many Ministries had been working for two years on a Cost of Economic Crime report that was due to be presented to cabinet soon.
Tolley, speaking at the inaugural Economic Crime Action Network meeting in Auckland yesterday, said: “Economic crime can range from pro forma invoicing schemes that drain the resources of small businesses and charities, to Ponzi schemes, to fraudulent finance companies that destroy the retirement savings of a generation.”
She said the report was unable to generate a firm methodology to precisely calculate the annual cost, but officials had concluded the cost was “likely to be in the region of many billion of dollars per year.”
Billions. Per. Year. (Similar to previous estimates of $1 to $6 Billion.) And where does National put its energies? Into chasing the comparatively insignificant problem of welfare fraud ($22 Million in a typical year). Where does the court system put its priorities? They like to jail welfare fraudsters more often than the (150 times more damaging) tax dodgers.
Our priorities as a country are completely screwed. If we put as much energy into cracking down on economic crime as we did chasing welfare cheats – we could afford a proper welfare system…
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