St Heliers properties among frozen Wang/Chen assets

More than $10 million worth of swanky property in the Auckland suburb of St Heliers is among the assets of failed Crafar Farm bidders May Wang and her business partner Chen Keen, aka Jack Chen, frozen by the Crown.

More residential property in Parnell, Mission Bay, Howick, Flatbush and a farm in Manawatu-Wanganui has also been frozen, alongside shares in several companies, bank accounts and Mr Chen’s BMW X5 which are now under management of the Official Assignee.

Orders freezing the assets were made at Auckland High Court last month as New Zealand police assist authorities in Hong Kong, where the pair face bribery and corruption charges laid by Hong Kong’s anti-corruption unit ICAC.

The pair are on bail awaiting trial and are understood to be in China.

Fresh proceedings loom at Auckland High Court as police try to register the interim foreign restraining orders here.

Ms Wang and Mr Chen oppose the application, which is due to be heard at Auckland High Court in July or August.

Among the charges the pair face in Hong Kong, the ICAC alleges that between May 2009 and March 2010 Ms Wang conspired with Mr Chen, then an executive of Natural Dairy NZ, and other persons to offer him two properties in Auckland and $HK73 million ($12 million) as rewards for him to acquire her company, UBNZ Assets.

Mr Keen’s wife, Ye Fang, and Ms Wang’s solicitor, Wu Wing-Kit, have also been charged by the ICAC for allegedly laundering more than $HK230 million.

At the time of the alleged offences, Natural Dairy (NZ) was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Mr Wu was acting for Ms Wang.

The charges were laid against them in 2011 after a year-long investigation by the ICAC and New Zealand’s Serious Fraud Office, which began investigating when the Overseas Investment Office was assessing Natural Dairy’s bid to buy the Crafar farms.

Assets affected under the interim foreign restraining orders include:

• Two properties, worth close to $7 million combined, on Lammermoor Drive in Auckland’s St Heliers. (The properties were bought by Mr Chen’s wholly-owned Anfatex Global Investment Holdings for $8m in February 2010).
• A $5.5 million property at 11 Cliff Rd in St Heliers.
• A house on Bridgewater Rd in Parnell, Auckland, previously owned by former Hanover Finance boss Mark Hotchin.
• Two neighbouring properties on Sommerville Rd, Howick.
• The farm property (Ashurst) held in the name of UBNZ Assets Holdings on Napier Rd and Te Matai Rd in Manawatu-Wanganui.
• Bank accounts in the name of Mr Chen and Anfatex Global and Feng Ye.
• Shares, held by Mr Chen in Anfatex Global Financial Investment Holdings, King’s House NZ, Chinese Business Roundtable Council Investments.
• Shares, held by Ms Wang in Sun Rentals, Dairy Assets Holdings, UBNZ Trustee, Dynasty Corporate Trustee.
• A BMW X5 registered in the name of Chen Keen.

The property to which the order applies is not to be disposed of, and is to be under the custody and control of the Official Assignee.

Mr Chen and Ms Wang did not oppose extension of the foreign restraining orders, but neither appeared in Auckland High Court this morning when the application to register the restraining orders was adjourned.

gbond@nbr.co.nz