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A defence lawyer for a businessman at the centre of a political donations trial has told the court his client is not a fraudster and did not conceal his identity as the Crown alleges.
A lengthy trial in the High Court in Auckland, in which seven people are defending charges laid by the Serious Fraud Office, is slowly drawing to a close.
The Crown claims three large donations to the country's two biggest political parties were split into smaller amounts to avoid triggering the disclosure limit and keep the public in the dark about the identity of the true donor - businessman Zhang Yikun.
Zhang's lawyer, Blair Keown, has been the first to give closing statements - lawyers for another six defendants are still to close.
Keown told the court his client did not conceal his identity from anyone.
"He is not a criminal, he is not a fraudster, he is not a cheat, he hasn't engaged in deceitful behaviour, he hasn't tried to conceal his identity from anyone, he hasn't sought to hide from the authorities, he hasn't sought to hide from the public in anyway."
Keown said Zhang did not donate $100,000 to the National Party in 2017 and 2018 as the Crown alleges, and openly donated to the Labour Party.
He said his client received a royal honour through an independent process that recognised his contribution to the Chinese community in New Zealand.
"Instead of enjoying the fruits of that work... a well deserved royal honour, Mr Zhang has instead had to endure public allegations of impropriety. Impropriety that runs totally against the grain of what we have just heard and what crown witnesses spoke about in the course of this trial."
Keown told the court the SFO case has relied on fund flows but these do not prove beyond reasonable doubt that it was Zhang's money donated to the National Party.
"The SFO's forensic accounting case against Mr Zhang has completely collapsed," he said.
"Once it's accepted, as it must be, that Mr Zhang was not the true donor for the 2017 and 2018 National Party donations, in each case, sir, Mr Zhang could have no motive to conceal an identity because he never would have been reported as the donor."
The Crown closed its case yesterday.
The defendants deny all charges.
