John Banks. <\/p>\n
On the fourth day of Banks' trial on a charge of filing a false electoral return, the High Court at Auckland is hearing an audio recording of a June 2012 police interview with Banks at his lawyer's chambers. <\/p>\n
When asked about the donations, he said: SkyCity no recollection of receiving the donation. Mega Upload [Mr Dotcom], no actual knowledge of the donation since before the publicity. <\/p>\n
Banks is defending a charge of filing a false electoral return in 2010 where he allegedly knowingly received political donations from Mr Dotcom and SkyCity that were recorded as anonymous. <\/p>\n
The allegations against relate to two $25,000 donations from Megastuff Ltd on Mr Dotcom's behalf in June 2010 and $15,000 from SkyCity in May that year. <\/p>\n
We received legal advice back in 2007 about the whole use of donations. I recall the legal advice was we would set up a secret trust or we could do it in good faith in the spirit of the law, which we did and I did every campaign since 2001, Banks said. <\/p>\n
Banks said that in 2010, he asked hundreds of people for money and the campaign received about 500 cheques. <\/p>\n
When asked about the campaign team's record-keeping, Banks said he never asked to see any records. <\/p>\n
He signed the electoral return on the basis that campaign treasurer Lance Hutchison had filled it out to the best of his knowledge. <\/p>\n
Banks said he did no cross-referencing or checking the donations against the return as he had confidence in Mr Hutchison. <\/p>\n
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'No recollection' of Dotcom cash: Banks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John Banks. Continue reading