An Australian-based fraudster has brought shame as well as a loss of mana and trust to his iwi after he conned the organisation out of more than $3 million.
Whanganui District and High Court.
Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
The entrepreneurial South Taranaki iwi Ngā Rauru Kītahi, which created Kaitahi As One smoothie products made of indigenous superfoods and stocked in supermarkets around the country, lost $3.1m to Te Whitianga Mark Huirua’s scam.
Huirua appeared before Justice Warrick Gendall in the High Court at Whanganui for sentencing on Friday after pleading guilty to six charges of using a forged document to gain a pecuniary advantage and one of carrying on a business fraudulently in February.
Huirua’s whānau belong to the iwi and were held in high standing but the court heard he has since been shunned by the organisation after his offending was discovered.
Gendall said Huirua felt crushed he was no longer part of the iwi and had been cut off from his whakapapa.
The iwi had suffered a significant loss of mana and trust as a result of Huirua’s offending, he said.
Huirua was sentenced to a total of two years and 11 months’ imprisonment.
In its 2003 Treaty settlement Ngā Rauru Kītahi, one of eight generally recognised iwi of Taranaki, entered into a Deed of Settlement with the Crown for its historical claims which included financial redress of $31 million.
In 2016 the Sydney-based Huirua was…
