Former chief executive of New Zealand Wine Co, Peter Scutts has appeared in Auckland District Court this morning facing serious fraud charges.
Scutts allegedly received $64,000 in kick-back payments, and now faces 16 Crimes Act charges of dishonesty using a document, and one Secret Commission Act charge of receiving secret reward for procuring contract, The NZ Herald reports.
According to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Scutts entered into an agreement with an Australian-based wholesaler where he received payments based on the volume of wine sold by NZ Wine Co within an eight week period.
"New Zealand has a very good international reputation for low levels of corruption and SFO is determined this is maintained," acting director Graham Gill said.
"Therefore it is always important to act as quickly as possible with investigations of this nature."
Scutts remained CEO of NZ Wine Co until September 2012 when the company merged with Foley Family Wines.
The SFO believes that the NZ Wine Co’s board had no knowledge of Scutt’s dealings.