John Key’s mirror trust

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, November 9th, 2011 - 76 comments
Categories: accountability, corruption, john key, leadership, national - Tags: ,

 

All these things operate underground. There are two near identical pairs. But only one of these things is really not like the other. Let’s not forget John Key’s mirror trust that let’s him keep an eye on the investments that are supposed to be held in a blind trust while he’s PM.

Blind trusts for Prime Ministers are sensible requirements because they remove any temptation for insider trading and letting your investment interests influence your political decisionmaking.

They’re not so effective though when your blind trust is mirrored.

 

76 comments on “John Key’s mirror trust ”

  1. One Anonymous Bloke 2

    Who owns Whitechapel?

    Key’s gaming of the system so as to stay within the latter of the law reminds me of Jimmy Carter’s law day speech.

    “Well, I’ve read parts of the embarrassing transcripts, and I’ve seen the proud statement of a former attorney general, who protected his boss, and now brags on the fact that he tiptoed through a mine field and came out “clean.” I can’t imagine somebody like Thomas Jefferson tiptoeing through a mine field on the technicalities of the law, and then bragging about being clean afterwards.”

    Judicial inquiry into the political funding and other financial activities of Key and his enablers. The US congress has been bought; I can’t imagine the National Party costs anywhere near as much.

  2. Roy 3

    Without the hairpiece, Key would be a dead ringer for the turnip…

    • Tiger Mountain 3.1

      Vile and disgusting this commenting on politicians appearance, but really, where are the paparazzi when you need ’em–toupee or comb over?

      • Hami Shearlie 3.1.1

        Or is it Berlusconi implants? – pity they couldn’t have implanted a conscience at the same time!

        • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1.1

          The conscience implant is optional in the Berlusconi make-over range of products. Records show that, so far, 0.0% of Berlusconi make-over recipients have taken up the option. Surveys of said recipients show that 1% just didn’t think it was worth the added cost and the other 99% said that it would stand in their way of making money.

      • Roy 3.1.2

        I think it’s perfectly legit to comment on a politician’s appearance if he is doing something deceptive (i.e. wearing a toupee) to exploit “looksism” and make himself look more attractive to people stupid enough to vote on appearance. Fact is, he would look older and less attractive to most people, and to female voters in particular, without the toupee.

      • mik e 3.1.3

        comb over key

  3. Tiger Mountain 4

    The PM is not called ShonKey by some without reason…
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/249633/Who-is-John-Key

    • Carol 4.1

      Key says he does not believe a moral issue arises for the traders who make these speculative attacks on currencies, or for the dealing rooms that carry out their orders. “I don’t really see it as a judgemental business. You’re simply executing orders for people.

      • One Anonymous Bloke 4.1.1

        Paging Dr. Godwin.

      • Akldnut 4.1.2

        Shows the character of the dude.
        Begs the question – where does morality come into it, where does it begin and how much does he have???

        Many people throughout history have gone to the gallows simply executing orders for other people – staying away from Godwin lol.
        (Not saying that his “Following orders” is an executable crime per se – physically anyway, maybe politically)

      • ianmac 4.1.3

        Yes read that but these days people don’t seem to care. And much more importantly John Key was mobbed by the overdressed poppets at Addington.
        You see? Poppets trump speculative attacks on currencies.

      • uke 4.1.4

        Quite like this quote too:
         

        During Key’s brief spell for Merrill Lynch in Sydney in 2001, he helped fire 500 staff as part of savage worldwide retrenchment by the bank. In the past, Key has appeared proud of his ability to sack without feelings. He told Metro magazine: “They always called me the smiling assassin.”
        These days he insists these were not cheerful sackings.
        “In the end I had to carry out wider responsibilities, but I think I’m fundamentally a nice guy, but have to follow instructions,” he says.

        • Roy 4.1.4.1

          Everybody thinks they are a nice guy, or female equivalent thereof.

        • logie97 4.1.4.2

          Seem to remember a particularly important war crimes trial where the defense said, “We were only following instructions…”

      • Colonial Viper 4.1.5

        “I don’t really see it as a judgemental business. You’re simply executing orders for people.

        Its been shown that many investment banks cream each trading day by either “front running” trades (today via HFT tools), or simply looking back and reassigning the worst prices of the day to their ‘valued clients’ and assigning the banks own trading accounts with the best prices of the day.

        In other words the Bankster Occupation are a bunch of cheating lying scum, and there has not been anything close to a ‘free market’ in financial trading for many years, and the world markets are nothing more than a casino where the house always wins. And our retirement funds always lose.

    • In Vino Veritas 4.2

      I expect Tiger, that he’s only called “Shonkey” by you and other rabid socialists. Having read the article, I can’t see anything that he has done that is shonkey, in fact, the article is quite positive about him, particularly his leadership and economic skills. But then, I guess this is why Mr Goff and Labour are so hell bent on making personal attacks on him.

      Always remember Tiger, socialism is great, until you run out of other peoples money. (proof: I refer you to Greece)

      • marsman 4.2.1

        John Key’s leadership and economic skills are pathetic, $40 billion dollar public debt, 4 days to do anything about the Rena disaster, Christchurch still in turmoil, 60,000 more unemployed etc. He’s puffed up by the MSM because his cronies own the MSM.
        Always remember Neoliberalism is great ( for a few) till you run out of other people’s money (then the few have to fuck off elsewhere to do their fleecing)

      • felix 4.2.2

        Financial speculative trading is great, until you destroy the whole world’s economy (proof: I refer you to the whole world’s economy)

      • The Voice of Reason 4.2.3

        If I follow your line of reasoning, in vino veritas, I guess Silvio Berlosconi must be a socialist, too. He’s hidden it well!

      • rosy 4.2.4

        “Always remember Tiger, socialism is great, until you run out of other peoples money. (proof: I refer you to Greece)”

        Run by the centre-right New Democracy party from 2004-2009.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 4.3

      I liked “Sharkey” a lot more

  4. King Kong 5

    How come this was not revealed in the extensive digging on Key’s personal finance that Labour carried out at the last election and which blew up so horribly in their face. Where is the pro…actually don’t bother. 25% and dropping says it all.

    • felix 5.1

      King Kong, the correct line is “This is old news and no-one cares.”

      Please get back into formation with the others.

      • King Kong 5.1.1

        And you Felix, should be spending more time helping to come up with fantasy revenue streams in order to fund spending promises on bludgers. Certainly not giving media advice to the righties

        • felix 5.1.1.1

          Why would I do that, monkey boy? I think you have me confused with someone else.

          ps I note your use of “And”. Thank you.

        • Draco T Bastard 5.1.1.2

          All the fantasy comes from the right – they actually believe that rich people are wealth creators when any unbiased look at the facts will show that the wealth comes from the environment and that the rich do nothing at all.

        • mik e 5.1.1.3

          Nothing like the ponzi schemers who have brought the western democratic world to its Knees no coverage of G20 meeting in October on how to deal with up to 54trillion in toxic derivatives the type Key was involved in at Merrill Lynch

    • rosy 5.2

      “How come this was not revealed in the extensive digging on Key’s personal finance that Labour carried out at the last election a”

      I’m going for tht ‘you missed the news flash line’… This one doesn’t go back to the last election King Kong – May 2010 and yes, anybody could see what was in the mirror trust.

  5. madagascar 6

    Have we really got to the ‘if you have any poo fling it now’ stage. Ah well two and half more weeks and everyone can get back to ignoring the twats for the next three years.

  6. tsmithfield 7

    The left must be desperate if they are now reverting to the attack lines from 3 years ago that blew up in their face back then. I thought the lessons would have been learned, but apparently not.

    • felix 7.1

      What blew up, tsmithfield?

      Are you disputing the nature of the trust set-up described?

      • In Vino Veritas 7.1.1

        The trust set up may well be of the nature you describe, but what goes on in terms of trust governance is just blind speculation, since unless you have been told specifically by one or more of the Trusts trustees (which is extremely doubtful), you and your friends have absolutely no idea.
        In conclusion, The Sprout has made implication about something he has limited (or no) knowledge about, and the rest have taken up the bone and are chewing on it, trying to build a reality around it.

        • felix 7.1.1.1

          What “blew up in their face back then”?

          ps don’t pretend to be naive and don’t pretend I am either.

    • Tiger Mountain 7.2

      It can be good to jam a bone down the throat of the memory hole occasionally Smithy.

    • insider 7.3

      Well it beats trying to spin the latest Fairfax poll as ‘good for the left’. Or the attack on Stats NZ.

      • Colonial Viper 7.3.1

        Its not an attack on Stats NZ. Its an attack on the integrity of Key’s governance.

        • insider 7.3.1.1

          So Key told them to write the release in a certain way? And this is unique to National? You should go back and see some of the stuff that came out of govt in 1999-2008. How did Goff get the Gone by lunchtime memo? Why was Madelaine Setchell effectively blacklisted? How did Erin Leigh get pasted in Parliament by Mallard? It’s all from civil servants’ work.

          That doesn’t mean civil servants are directed, but they do know that they serve, and that no doubt influences how things are presented across govt – it may even be written into the SSC guidance notes; I’m sure there is something about the need to provide discreet political support or advice or similar to ministers. Hipkins comes from that background so is being disingenuous in his criticisms and it’s another nasty smear. Good on Bascand for not taking it lying down, as many might. A number of civil servants I know have said they felt freer to offer advice with the change to a National govt. Not sure if that was due to a less managerial style from ministers or a first term vs a third term govt, but they had noticed the more relaxed style.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 7.4

      A bit like the UK phone hacking scandal, was just a blip a few years ago, the police seemed to not bothered and then

      BANG it blew up in News Ltd face.

      There is a time for everything in politics and sometimes NZ is just too small and under the thumb of the 1% to have the truth laid bare.

      A bit like NSW politics and corruption in the 70s, didnt all come out in the open till the day of the funeral when Sir Robert Askin died and what a lot of insiders knew then became public knowledge

  7. insider 8

    H Fee H Fee.

    Is this the next great game changer?

    • ghostwhowalksnz 8.1

      Yes, the H fee , what was the reason why that was all OK ?

      Thats right, someone else in the office has a very similar signature on original documents!!

      yeah right!

      That follows another claim about a particular shonky deal run in Elders , either Key has ‘left before that happened’ or ‘only heard about it during his farewell lunch’. Take your pick …wait it could change again when people talk under oath, as we know the finance industry is full of liars and cheats.

      Then there was his signed statuary declaration for his enrolment in the helensville electorate, where he claimed to live in a house he subsequently said he never lived in ( and signed other papers saying he was living in Orakei Rd)
      The reason that was all Ok ? . Well the Clerk of the house passed it off.
      No mention of the Chief Electoral officer who has responsibility for enrolment matters, Not some parliamentary official

  8. Colonial Viper 9

    The sudden appearance of idiot Righties means that the presure points of John Key’s shonky dealings are all too real and close to the surface.

    • King Kong 9.1

      Absolutely correct Colonial. All us righties recieved the records of Keys financial affairs with a note that this was political dynamite if it got out and to defend it at all costs.

      By the way we also faked the moon landings and shot JFK (it was Lockwood-Smith on the grassy knoll)

      • Colonial Viper 9.1.1

        Heh your attempt to trivialise with hyperbole about moon landings etc. just underscores my point.

        You’re a servant, you don’t get to see Key’s financial records, you just get orders to follow.

        • The Baron 9.1.1.1

          Wha guys, sorry I’m late! You really would have thought that I would set my alarm properly, especially when we have been tasked with subverting a wank off session between loyalists on New Zealand’s #4 ranked political blog.
          Wow, I’ll never make the RWNJ subversion crack-team for the top three at this rate! Woe!

      • ghostwhowalksnz 9.1.2

        Key had all ready been exposed lying about his ownership of Kiwirail shares which were supposed to be listed.

        That was blamed on some poor stiff who ‘hadnt sold them’

        yeah right

    • rosy 9.2

      The sudden appearance of idiot Righties means that the presure points of John Key’s shonky dealings are all too real and close to the surface.

      Not just their sudden appearance but their rewriting of the non-blind trust issue from last year as the H-fee from before the last election. What’s up with that?

  9. Nick K 10

    You guys were trying this 5 years ago and look where it got you – 52 v 26.

    • felix 10.1

      King Kong has never heard of it before. He’s shocked that it didn’t come out earlier.

      He thought he knew what Mr Key was all about too.

      • King Kong 10.1.1

        Not as shocked as I was to hear about the Nazi gold that Goff has hidden in his Swiss bank accounts. Thats true as well…right?

        • felix 10.1.1.1

          So you’re disputing the veracity of the claim made in the post?

          I don’t think you’ll find many National supporters agreeing with you. As I said earlier, the correct line is “This is old news and no-one cares.”

          Get back in formation please.

          • King Kong 10.1.1.1.1

            Only the smear that Key knows whats in his blind trust and that you guys know that he knows.

            Anyway, the Standards lefties pretending they have always abeen Green supporters in 3…2…1

            • felix 10.1.1.1.1.1

              If you bothered reading the posts and comments you’d already know that there are a lot of Green supporters here monkey boy.

            • One Anonymous Bloke 10.1.1.1.1.2

              KK, I can’t speak for anyone else, but that’s not what I’m saying at all. It’s clear that a mechanism has been created whereby Key can know what’s in the blind trust. He argues that although anyone can see the assets that Whitechapel’s holding, but since you can’t tell who they’re holding them for, neither can he.

              This is a fact on paper and a fiction in reality. It is a ‘clever knot’ designed to turn the law inside out (I’ve been reading John le Carré again), which is why I quoted Jimmy Carter’s ‘Law Day’ speech above.

              Perhaps you are comfortable to have a PM who obeys the letter of the law while subverting its intent, and then brags about it.

  10. ak 11

    Money quote: “In the end I had to carry out wider responsibilities, but I think I’m fundamentally a nice guy, but have to follow instructions,” he says.

    That’s the worm gnawing at his innards right there.

    The deep need to be “nice” won out when he rejected the Joyce/Brash racism, but now the “instructions” are intense: bash the poor and reward your masters – or your nice, photo-op days are over.

    Tip-toeing on a razor blade with glass cojones.

    • Akldnut 11.1

      Money quote: “In the end I had to carry out wider responsibilities, but I think I’m fundamentally a nice guy, but have to follow instructions,”

      A quote that he’s able to recycle whenever he needs justification for all the nasty things he inflicts.
      Expect to see this in his “Memoirs of J Key” Derivatives Trader & Prime Minister

  11. anne 12

    Key’s investments must not be doing so well,the cup day scrumage by women to touch him,one called him ‘justin beiber’ photos and hugs were exchanged,one of his minders told hm he was a
    ‘married’ man,he said ‘i know,i can’t afford a divorce’, his slippers wont get warmed at night when this travels back home,so if he ends up in the divorce courts,that will cost him half of his empire and that is why he stays married! not a good promotion for a stable PM’ers marriage.

  12. Obviously Sprout knows something I do not.  I had a stab at this in 2010 and thought that Whitechapel Ltd was the corporate trustee for the Aldgate Trust.
     
    Whitechapel has lawyers from two different firms as directors and a trustee company as shareholder.
     
    It would be a major scandal if Key could “see” into the supposedly blind trust.  Is this what Sprout is hinting at?

    • Batman 13.1

      We are saved, we are saved it’ll be just like the H-Fee…….. oh wait up a mo….

    • One Anonymous Bloke 13.2

      According to previous articles on the subject, “Mr Key’s private interests appear to be perfectly visible through Whitechapel”. Key’s response is that “It is physically impossible for anyone to know whom it holds those assets for.” And well, clearly that’s a lie. If it’s physically impossible to know who owns the assets, well, then they’re mine, and I want them back.

  13. tc 14

    Monorail anybody

  14. Two of them seem to be signs from the underground.
    Ones a turnip
    the others a two term Prime Minister.

    • Colonial Viper 15.1

      If National win, Key won’t even make it to the end of the 2nd term. He’s already bored.

      • Deadly_NZ 15.1.1

        He’ll do the rape and pillage part, transfer the assets to his mates and fuck off to Hawaii, to wait for the back handers (His Share) from them, he’s made richer. And Blinglish and Joyce can fight over the carcase that will be National.

  15. Nick K 16

    This post must be one about Labour’s policy for trust reform.

    Funny, ‘cos I thought it was another smear on Key.

  16. “I mean they sold products that in their heart of hearts they must have known they wouldn’t be repaid for so I can understand that bit….” John Key on breakfast TV 2011

    “The initial thought was that, yes, the Internet’s great for foreign exchange because it’s vanilla*. But there are applications that are just as wide in many other areas: corporate bond trading, government credit, equity underwriting, credit derivatives-it’s endless,” John Key managing director of debt in a CBS publication in 1999 when the Glass Steagall act was repealed and he had been invited to serve on the Foreign Exchange committee advising the Federal Reserve of New York.

    The thing to watch is his shares in BofA. They constitute a massive conflict of interest to the Keyster!

    * Interesting way of describing the internet. the term Vanilla is also used to describe conventional (as in boring) sex! Did John Equate foreign exchange with conventional sex while the real exiting stuff was happening in the corporate bond trading, government credit, equity underwriting, credit derivative scams?

  17. randal 18

    mirror mirror on the wall.
    who is the ugliest of them all?

  18. berry 19

    If this is true or not there is plenty of evidence that John Key is corrupt. Any national supporters don’t care about the well being of a nation only to keep the rich with their money with tax breaks. Who knows how much damage john key is going to cause by staying in power and how many more dodgy deals he is going to make.