Twisted Trends tale casts staff as ‘lab rats,’ Fraud case still under wraps, Curious case of digital agency’s competing websites

In NBR Print today: A year ago Callaghan Innovation cancelled its R&D growth grant to Trends International Publishing over concerns about how its funding was being applied. It’s still attempting to claw back nearly $400,000 from the Auckland company, which is countersuing for breach of contract and defamation. Now former Trends employees have claimed they were instructed to tell auditors they worked fulltime on the contentious R&D project, despite having no involvement. It wasn’t a lie, they were assured, because in reality they had been “lab rats” in a “grand experiment.” Nick Grant reports.

Extraordinary claims have been made in a stoush between a digital agency and one of its clients, Sally Lindsay reveals. The saga between iMoved.me and Little Giant revolves around claims the digital agency has set up a rival website for startup MoovMe offering exactly the same service as iMoved.me and has taken a stake in the new company.

More than three years after the Serious Fraud Office started investigating concerns about possible unlawful payments connected to property transactions in Wellington, mystery surrounds progress of the case. Tim Hunter investigates the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust and Wellington’s Tenths Trust.

Savvy marketing has ensured Trilogy International [NZX:TIL] products feature in many a New Zealand woman’s beauty and scent arsenal. The company’s impressive share price rise has pleased shareholders, as has its forecasts for the year ahead. But could the company be tripped up by doing too much, too soon? Calida Smylie reports.

Prominent Hawke’s Bay designer and developer Andy Coltart has won the latest courtroom stoush in a tug-of-war over a trophy property. It is yet another twist in a wider dispute, which recently descended into bizarre allegations of an electricity lineman being bitten by a resident when he tried to disconnect electricity to one of the property’s dwellings. Hamish McNicol reports.

Accounting firm Staples Rodway is considering an initiative that would see it exchange services for equity in small businesses. Campbell Gibson finds out how this might work.

Recently voted one of the top five hotels in the region by Tripadvisor, well known Jacksons Hotel on the main road from Christchurch to the West Coast has closed its doors. Chris Hutching tracks the pub’s demise to new anti-drink driving laws.

Eduard Ebbinge started both his companies by watching businesses do well in Europe and then replicating them in New Zealand. The Snowplanet founder talks to Campbell Gibson about his ideas.

Technological advancements are changing the landscape of New Zealand’s economy and have led to calls for policy makers to alter how inflation is measured. Jason Walls looks at how the prevalence of shopping apps is driving inflation lower.

If auditors were to opine on the existence of god, they would probably decide that the weight of documentary evidence provided unqualified support, writes Tim Hunter as he delves into the murky world of Pyne Gould Corporation [NZX: PGC] and Perpetual Trust.

Shoeshine discusses whether a break up of Fletcher Building [NZX: FBU] is on the cards and whether it makes sense.

Heartland columnist Jacqueline Rowarth blames Zika mosquitoes on the banning of DDT.

National's headlong embrace of public transport in Auckland brought the inevitable cries that the party has little in the way of political principle. Rob Hosking leaps into the debate in his Order Paper column.

Don’t miss NBR’s Special Report: SMEs – taking on the world

All this and more in today’s National Business Review Print Edition. Out now.

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