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Serious Fraud Office Act 1990

Detection of serious or complex fraud

5: Power to require production of documents

You could also call this:

"The Director can ask you to share important documents to help with a fraud investigation."

Illustration for Serious Fraud Office Act 1990

The Director can ask you to show them documents that might be important to an investigation into serious or complex fraud. You will get a written notice telling you when and where to produce the documents. The Director can also ask you questions about other documents that might be relevant to the investigation. You have to answer these questions to the best of your knowledge and belief. The Director can make copies of the documents you produce or take out parts of the documents. If necessary, the Director can also ask you to help make information from the documents usable. This might mean reproducing the information in a different form. You do not have to give any other information or answer any other questions that are not about the documents. If you get a notice to produce documents, the rules in Section 18 will apply to the notice.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM211429.

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"Investigating suspected fraud using special powers"

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"Getting a warrant to search a place for evidence of serious fraud"

Part 1Detection of serious or complex fraud

5Power to require production of documents

  1. The Director may, by notice in writing, require any person, at the time and place specified in the notice,—

  2. to produce for inspection any documents which are specified in the notice and which the Director has reason to believe may be relevant to any suspected case of serious or complex fraud:
    1. to answer, to the best of that person's knowledge and belief, questions with respect to the whereabouts or existence of any further documents that may be relevant to the investigation.

      1. Where any document is produced pursuant to this section, the Director may do any one or both of the following things:

      2. take copies of the document, or of extracts from the document:
        1. where necessary, require the person producing the document to reproduce, or to assist any person nominated by the Director to reproduce, in usable form, any information recorded or stored in the document.

          1. Nothing in this section requires any person to supply any other information or to answer any other questions.

          2. Section 18 shall apply to any notice given under this section.