Govt not surprised at Daphne Project revelations - Faafoi

The government says it is already working on 'tightening up' legislation that could shed more light on exactly who owns New Zealand companies. It follows revelations made yesterday on Morning Report that Auckland company, Denton Morrell, is helping to manage a network of New Zealand-registered businesses and trusts that international money launderers linked to the Azerbaijani government may be using. Investigative journalist Nicky Hager told us that while foreign trusts were subject to a government crackdown in 2016, not enough of the rules were changed. Now the current government is hoping to close some of the loopholes that were left when the belt was tightened on foreign trusts. Earlier, Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Kris Faafoi told Susie Ferguson the government was hoping to get that process underway at some point over the next couple of months.