Silence is not loyalty: Why Kiwi Indians must speak out against fraud & abuse
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Indians first came to New Zealand in the 1800’s and since then we have been working hard, obeying the law, paying our taxes and contributing meaningfully to the kiwi society. We all came here with a dream, to improve our own lives and those of our children and the following generations. We proudly see ourselves as hardworking, law abiding and family- oriented.
That story remains true for most of us. However, another story is emerging, and ignoring it won’t help us.
In Canterbury, an Indian couple used their positions in the Ministry for Children to steal over two million dollars. They funnelled the money offshore through a shell company. In Auckland, a mortgage and investment fraud scheme has come to light, involving millions of dollars. Across the North Island, Indian-run businesses have been caught underpaying their own workers.
They have crammed them into garages and lied to government agencies. These incidents are no longer isolated.
The recent reports about a liquor “empire” in Canterbury with unpaid staff and vanished business promises are troubling.
Another liquor operator in Bay of Plenty faced record penalties over 1.5 million dollars. Other Indian-owned businesses have been ordered to repay hundreds of thousands in stolen wages. Such incidents are no longer isolated as we see our community attracting headlines for these wrong reasons.
The kiwifruit industry tells a similar story. One company in the Bay of Plenty reportedly ran up around 57 million dollars in unpaid taxes before going under. Another labour company with an Indian-origin director went into liquidation, owing around 1.5 million in GST and PAYE alone. Separate prosecutions have shown kiwifruit contractors penalised for cheating the very workers who picked the fruit.
The hospitality industry has been fraught with its own share of attention for all the bad reasons. A well-known Indian Restaurant chain, had around NZD 34 million in assets restrained amid allegations of about NZD 7.4 million in tax fraud.
Owners were further linked with immigration breaches and worker exploitation and even physical assault.
Another kebab store owner was recently accused of physically beating his worker in west Auckland.
We cannot ignore the drug trade either, where some Kiwi Indians have been linked to the largest Methamphetamine bust in New Zealand history tied to shipments of meth laced beer. Some Indian grocery stores have also been accused of selling opium-based
concoctions, and customs arrested a 66 year old Auckland man for allegedly smuggling 10 kilograms of the illegal drug commonly known as Kamini pills into New Zealand. This drug was hidden in innocuous boondi packets of a popular Indian snack brand.
Repeated electoral fraud in an Indian dominated suburb, portrays a pattern, and diminishes the credibility of our community and such stains are hard to shirk off. Alleged fraud around funding involving trusts associated with Pokie-machines also continues to threaten our reputation further.
Recent alleged frauds in the real estate sector include a mortgage scam which involved faking documents to secure 2.86 million in loans for properties, defrauding banks and investors. A well-known real estate agent has been recently accused of being engaged in
rapid flipping of properties and was earlier warned for anti-money laundering violations.Finally, this saga ended in liquidation owing nearly $9 million to Inland revenue.
More recently, a real estate agent copy pasted electronic signatures on a 2022 townhouse sale contract leading to a high court law suit.
Things have come to a head, as issues extend beyond bad employment practices and financial fraud. A recent Holi event in South Auckland received serious media scrutiny.
About a dozen members of a so-called “cultural delegation,” supported by a letter from the Indian Consulate, are believed to have overstayed their visas. The consulate’s letter covered 29 people, said to be performers for a concert. Only 18 appeared. Immigration New Zealand states that most of them are currently in the country illegally and a RNZ report alleged that $40,000 dollars were paid by these affected overstayers.
Public scandals involving a few individuals within the Kiwi Indian community, can feed into broader prejudice against the wider Kiwi Indian community.
What real community leadership looks like
Here’s what many hesitate to say openly, but needs to be said: a small, stubborn group within our community is using the Kiwi Indian name to cheat, exploit and harm others. They leverage our language, networks, gurdwaras, mandirs, WhatsApp groups and community associations.
They build trust as we all do, then weaponise it against the most vulnerable around them. When they are caught, the headlines do not say “a fraudster was jailed” but rather “Indian couple sentenced” or “Kiwi Indian businessman in fraud case.” If the headline stops short of using the word Indian, the accompanying picture of an Indian face adds insult to injury.
That portrayal harms the majority of us who run honest businesses, pay our staff fairly and teach our children to do the same. But insisting that “most of us are good people” won’t bring fairness. We should call out bad behaviours and stop shielding them behind the veil of silence.
For too long, when someone from our community has done wrong, we have looked the other way. We let the courts handle it, avoiding a scene. Some community leaders quietly suggest we shouldn’t discuss these matters publicly, arguing it gives ammunition to racists.
This fear isn’t irrational; anti-Indian sentiment really exists in New Zealand. Hate incidents are real. We know this.
However, staying silent hasn’t protected us from racism. It has only told victims that their pain is less important than our reputation.
Furthermore, silence from the community adds fuel to the racist agenda and eases immigrant bashing.
Real leadership means being honest, even when the truth is uncomfortable. It means refusing to stay quiet when someone from our community steal wages, evade taxes, sell fake jobs, abuse partners or exploit visa regulations. We should name and shame them, as they don’t represent us.
The perpetrators should be afraid of the social cost of tarnishing
the image of Kiwi Indians. Such bad apples should be boycotted socially.
We need our community organisations and leaders to establish clear boundaries. If someone has been convicted or even accused of cheating workers or running scams, do not put them on stage at community events.
Do not give them awards, even at the questionable ceremonies that have lost all sanctity, where awards are handed out to almost everyone.
Do not allow them to use our platforms to restore their image while their victims struggle to rebuild their lives.
We also owe our young people a better conversation. Many feel embarrassed when they see these headlines. They deserve a community that confronts its problems directly instead
of hiding them.
The way forward is clear, even if it is not easy.
Stop protecting people simply because they are from our community. Being Indian is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Support victims of fraud, exploitation, and domestic violence, regardless of their immigration status or whether they can afford a lawyer.
Our media should fiercely cover these stories without hesitation, and no longer avoid them as they might sound embarrassing.
Community leadership goes far beyond vanilla press releases and public posturing. It means taking real action: identifying and ostracising those at fault, while standing firmly beside the victims, who have lost substantial sums of money, to this well oiled, alleged visa fraud. What are we doing to support these victims, other than urging and forcing them to return back?
Let’s not forget, they are human as well, mostly less educated and coming from low socio economic backgrounds, and thus more prone to such organised trafficking scams promising them better life overseas.
We need to collectively foster a culture whereby speaking up is seen as an act of love for our community, not a betrayal. Those community members, running around and trying to silence those who are uncovering these frauds, should also be equally held responsible and ostracised from the community.
Most Kiwi Indians are decent, generous people who proudly embrace their heritage and their home in New Zealand. Remaining silent while a few tarnish our name is not loyalty; it is a betrayal of what we truly stand for.
If you are a community leader, a business owner, a priest, a trustee, or an elder that people respect, it’s time to use that standing for something meaningful. Call out bad behaviour. Stand with those who have been wronged.
Let’s show some spine and stand for the future reputation of our upcoming generations as it will be shaped by how we choose to respond in this moment.
Indians first came to New Zealand in the 1800’s and since then we have been working hard, obeying the law, paying our taxes and contributing meaningfully to the kiwi society. We all came here with a dream, to improve our own lives and those of our children and the following generations. We proudly...
Indians first came to New Zealand in the 1800’s and since then we have been working hard, obeying the law, paying our taxes and contributing meaningfully to the kiwi society. We all came here with a dream, to improve our own lives and those of our children and the following generations. We proudly see ourselves as hardworking, law abiding and family- oriented.
That story remains true for most of us. However, another story is emerging, and ignoring it won’t help us.
In Canterbury, an Indian couple used their positions in the Ministry for Children to steal over two million dollars. They funnelled the money offshore through a shell company. In Auckland, a mortgage and investment fraud scheme has come to light, involving millions of dollars. Across the North Island, Indian-run businesses have been caught underpaying their own workers.
They have crammed them into garages and lied to government agencies. These incidents are no longer isolated.
The recent reports about a liquor “empire” in Canterbury with unpaid staff and vanished business promises are troubling.
Another liquor operator in Bay of Plenty faced record penalties over 1.5 million dollars. Other Indian-owned businesses have been ordered to repay hundreds of thousands in stolen wages. Such incidents are no longer isolated as we see our community attracting headlines for these wrong reasons.
The kiwifruit industry tells a similar story. One company in the Bay of Plenty reportedly ran up around 57 million dollars in unpaid taxes before going under. Another labour company with an Indian-origin director went into liquidation, owing around 1.5 million in GST and PAYE alone. Separate prosecutions have shown kiwifruit contractors penalised for cheating the very workers who picked the fruit.
The hospitality industry has been fraught with its own share of attention for all the bad reasons. A well-known Indian Restaurant chain, had around NZD 34 million in assets restrained amid allegations of about NZD 7.4 million in tax fraud.
Owners were further linked with immigration breaches and worker exploitation and even physical assault.
Another kebab store owner was recently accused of physically beating his worker in west Auckland.
We cannot ignore the drug trade either, where some Kiwi Indians have been linked to the largest Methamphetamine bust in New Zealand history tied to shipments of meth laced beer. Some Indian grocery stores have also been accused of selling opium-based
concoctions, and customs arrested a 66 year old Auckland man for allegedly smuggling 10 kilograms of the illegal drug commonly known as Kamini pills into New Zealand. This drug was hidden in innocuous boondi packets of a popular Indian snack brand.
Repeated electoral fraud in an Indian dominated suburb, portrays a pattern, and diminishes the credibility of our community and such stains are hard to shirk off. Alleged fraud around funding involving trusts associated with Pokie-machines also continues to threaten our reputation further.
Recent alleged frauds in the real estate sector include a mortgage scam which involved faking documents to secure 2.86 million in loans for properties, defrauding banks and investors. A well-known real estate agent has been recently accused of being engaged in
rapid flipping of properties and was earlier warned for anti-money laundering violations.Finally, this saga ended in liquidation owing nearly $9 million to Inland revenue.
More recently, a real estate agent copy pasted electronic signatures on a 2022 townhouse sale contract leading to a high court law suit.
Things have come to a head, as issues extend beyond bad employment practices and financial fraud. A recent Holi event in South Auckland received serious media scrutiny.
About a dozen members of a so-called “cultural delegation,” supported by a letter from the Indian Consulate, are believed to have overstayed their visas. The consulate’s letter covered 29 people, said to be performers for a concert. Only 18 appeared. Immigration New Zealand states that most of them are currently in the country illegally and a RNZ report alleged that $40,000 dollars were paid by these affected overstayers.
Public scandals involving a few individuals within the Kiwi Indian community, can feed into broader prejudice against the wider Kiwi Indian community.
What real community leadership looks like
Here’s what many hesitate to say openly, but needs to be said: a small, stubborn group within our community is using the Kiwi Indian name to cheat, exploit and harm others. They leverage our language, networks, gurdwaras, mandirs, WhatsApp groups and community associations.
They build trust as we all do, then weaponise it against the most vulnerable around them. When they are caught, the headlines do not say “a fraudster was jailed” but rather “Indian couple sentenced” or “Kiwi Indian businessman in fraud case.” If the headline stops short of using the word Indian, the accompanying picture of an Indian face adds insult to injury.
That portrayal harms the majority of us who run honest businesses, pay our staff fairly and teach our children to do the same. But insisting that “most of us are good people” won’t bring fairness. We should call out bad behaviours and stop shielding them behind the veil of silence.
For too long, when someone from our community has done wrong, we have looked the other way. We let the courts handle it, avoiding a scene. Some community leaders quietly suggest we shouldn’t discuss these matters publicly, arguing it gives ammunition to racists.
This fear isn’t irrational; anti-Indian sentiment really exists in New Zealand. Hate incidents are real. We know this.
However, staying silent hasn’t protected us from racism. It has only told victims that their pain is less important than our reputation.
Furthermore, silence from the community adds fuel to the racist agenda and eases immigrant bashing.
Real leadership means being honest, even when the truth is uncomfortable. It means refusing to stay quiet when someone from our community steal wages, evade taxes, sell fake jobs, abuse partners or exploit visa regulations. We should name and shame them, as they don’t represent us.
The perpetrators should be afraid of the social cost of tarnishing
the image of Kiwi Indians. Such bad apples should be boycotted socially.
We need our community organisations and leaders to establish clear boundaries. If someone has been convicted or even accused of cheating workers or running scams, do not put them on stage at community events.
Do not give them awards, even at the questionable ceremonies that have lost all sanctity, where awards are handed out to almost everyone.
Do not allow them to use our platforms to restore their image while their victims struggle to rebuild their lives.
We also owe our young people a better conversation. Many feel embarrassed when they see these headlines. They deserve a community that confronts its problems directly instead
of hiding them.
The way forward is clear, even if it is not easy.
Stop protecting people simply because they are from our community. Being Indian is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Support victims of fraud, exploitation, and domestic violence, regardless of their immigration status or whether they can afford a lawyer.
Our media should fiercely cover these stories without hesitation, and no longer avoid them as they might sound embarrassing.
Community leadership goes far beyond vanilla press releases and public posturing. It means taking real action: identifying and ostracising those at fault, while standing firmly beside the victims, who have lost substantial sums of money, to this well oiled, alleged visa fraud. What are we doing to support these victims, other than urging and forcing them to return back?
Let’s not forget, they are human as well, mostly less educated and coming from low socio economic backgrounds, and thus more prone to such organised trafficking scams promising them better life overseas.
We need to collectively foster a culture whereby speaking up is seen as an act of love for our community, not a betrayal. Those community members, running around and trying to silence those who are uncovering these frauds, should also be equally held responsible and ostracised from the community.
Most Kiwi Indians are decent, generous people who proudly embrace their heritage and their home in New Zealand. Remaining silent while a few tarnish our name is not loyalty; it is a betrayal of what we truly stand for.
If you are a community leader, a business owner, a priest, a trustee, or an elder that people respect, it’s time to use that standing for something meaningful. Call out bad behaviour. Stand with those who have been wronged.
Let’s show some spine and stand for the future reputation of our upcoming generations as it will be shaped by how we choose to respond in this moment.
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