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Serious Fraud Office Act 1990

Miscellaneous provisions - Secrecy

36: Secrecy of certain information relating to Serious Fraud Office business

You could also call this:

"Keeping Serious Fraud Office secrets"

Illustration for Serious Fraud Office Act 1990

You are part of the Serious Fraud Office. You must keep secret certain information. This includes information the Director gets under section 5 or section 9, and information from search warrants. You must not tell anyone who is not part of the Serious Fraud Office. The Director can let you share this information if the person who gave it to you says it is okay, or if it is public information. The Director can also let you share it for the purposes of the Serious Fraud Office Act, for a prosecution, or if someone has a proper interest in it. You can read more about this in section 37 and section 39. If you break this rule on purpose, you can get a fine of up to $5,000.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM211472.

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Part 4Miscellaneous provisions
Secrecy

36Secrecy of certain information relating to Serious Fraud Office business

  1. Every member of the Serious Fraud Office shall observe the strictest secrecy in relation to—

  2. information supplied to or obtained by the Director under or in connection with the exercise of any power conferred by section 5 or section 9 or in the course of executing any search warrant issued under this Act:
    1. information derived from or based upon any such information:
      1. information relating to the exercise or possible exercise of any power conferred by Part 2,—
          1. and, except as provided in subsection (2), shall not disclose any such information in any way whatever to any person who is not a member of the Serious Fraud Office.

        1. Notwithstanding subsection (1), the Director may disclose such information, or authorise any other member of the Serious Fraud Office to disclose such information,—

        2. if the person who disclosed the information to the Serious Fraud Office consents to that disclosure; or
          1. to the extent that the information is available to the public under any Act; or
            1. for the purposes of this Act or in connection with the exercise of powers under this Act; or
              1. for the purposes of any prosecution anywhere; or
                1. to any person who the Director is satisfied has a proper interest in receiving such information.

                  1. This section is subject to section 37 and section 39.

                  2. Every member of the Serious Fraud Office commits an offence, and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000, who knowingly contravenes this section.

                  Compare
                  • SR 1985/259 r 33
                  • 1988 No 2 s 32
                  • 1989 No 11 s 23
                  Notes
                  • Section 36(4): amended, on , by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).