FILE PHOTO: Cruising – America’s Cup finals – Hamilton, Bermuda – June 26, 2017 – Emirates Team New Zealand commemorates with the America’s Cup prize in 2017 after beating Oracle Group USA. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Picture
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – America’s Cup holders Team New Zealand (TNZ) said on Wednesday they had actually asked police to examine a supposed email rip-off after moving cash to a fraudulent Hungarian savings account.
The New Zealand cruising team said they had actually sent out the money to the wrong account after a European-based television specialist they were dealing with was hacked.
Local media reported that more than NZ$ 1 million ($644,800) was sent out to the account and TNZ president Grant Dalton said in a declaration on Wednesday that once the problem was found the team called the authorities.
” The fraud/theft was reported to the NZ Cops who notified the appropriate global authorities with all appropriate steps being instigated … to try to recuperate the funds,” Dalton said in the declaration.
TNZ have come under examination today after the federal government agency accountable for the America’s Cup said it had concerns about “monetary and structural matters”.
The Ministry of Organisation, Development and Employment (MBIE) released the investigation after allegations were made about monetary mismanagement at the America’s Cup Event (ACE) organisation, which will run next year’s occasion in Auckland.
The claims surfaced after TNZ said on Tuesday they had ended the contracts of individuals, who worked for ACE, that they presumed of leaking private commercial info.
Groups from Britain, Italy and the United States are due to contend next year in innovative “foiling” monohull yachts to choose who will challenge New Zealand in a series of head-to-head races for the America’s Cup, called the “Auld Mug”.
Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Modifying by Alexander Smith