PHOTO: Richard Gee. NZ Herald
New Zealand taxpayers have funded bankrupt business trainer Richard Peter Gee to conduct business mentoring courses in Tonga.
The New Zealand Herald said the 64-year-old Aucklander conducted his third mentoring session in Tonga last week since being made bankrupt in the High Court at Auckland.
It said Mr Gee received $29,000 for the mentoring courses in Tonga – part of an aid package for the Pacific nation funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
A spokeswoman for MFAT told the paper she “had no idea Mr Gee had been bankrupted during a period he was carrying out business mentoring courses”.
“She said the money was paid to the Tonga Chamber of Commerce as part of a larger aid package and the organisation then handled contracting itself. She said Mfat believed $29,000 had been paid to Geewiz Group Professional Speakers Ltd which provided “six courses of up to five days in length” between 2013 and 2015”…Read more
