Thursday, 22 July 2021, 1:58 pm
The Auckland High Court has ordered Clevedon Kawakawa
Road Limited (CKRL) to pay $160,000 in penalties and $15,000
in costs for not seeking approval for a sensitive land
purchase it made on behalf of an overseas
investor.
This is the first time the court has
considered a penalty against an associate of an overseas
investor.
In February 2013 businessman Mr Zhaorong Mai
agreed to purchase two adjoining properties totalling just
over 87 hectares in Clevedon. The land is categorised as
sensitive land as it is non-urban land exceeding five
hectares and one of the properties adjoins the foreshore at
Kauri Bay and Kahuru Point in Auckland.
Mai nominated CKRL to complete the purchase before the transaction was settled. CKRL told the court it acted as Mai’s associate when it purchased the land and that it failed to seek Overseas Investment Office (OIO) consent, which breached the Overseas Investment Act 2005. Justice Sarah Katz said there is a “strong need” to deter any breaches of the act as they have the potential to alienate sensitive land, that could make it difficult to monitor or detect. OIO Group Manager Anna Wilson-Farrell said the regulator would pursue associates for breaches of the act as actively as overseas investors directly making purchases.
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