Auckland man sentenced for attempted multi-million dollar COVID fraud

An Auckland man who attempted to fraudulently claim more than $2 million through various Covid-19 government support schemes has today been sentenced in the Auckland District Court following a prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

Hun Min Im was sentenced to nearly four years and 5 months in prison for his role in orchestrating a large-scale fraud targeting the Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme (WSS), and three schemes administered by Inland Revenue (IR) - the Small Business Cashflow Scheme (SBCS), COVID-19 Support Payments (CSP) and Resurgence Support Payments (RSP).

The Court process

In May, Im pleaded guilty to 54 charges. He was also found guilty following trial at the Auckland District Court of a further 34 charges, including obtaining by deception and using forged documents.

In total, he attempted to claim $2.3 million and obtained nearly $624,000 in taxpayer funds.

Im submitted 42 WSS applications on behalf of eight companies and four sole traders—none of which were genuine trading entities or employed any staff.

He forged signatures and documents to incorporate companies, filed false GST returns, and sought an additional $172,800 in Covid-19 subsidies from Inland Revenue to which he was not entitled.

Abuse of public money

SFO Director Karen Chang says “this was deliberate abuse of public money that was intended to support people and businesses during a time of significant stress and uncertainty. Im created a complex web of fake companies and forged documents to exploit support schemes designed to help struggling businesses and families.

“He stole the personal information of tenants and jobseekers to make his fraud appear legitimate. The money he obtained was used to fund his lifestyle, including purchasing a luxury vehicle and apartment.

"The case underscores the SFO’s commitment to investigating and prosecuting fraud involving emergency public funding, a strategic area of focus for the SFO."

Wage subsidy scheme

The Wage Subsidy fraud was referred to the SFO by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) following its own inquiries. The investigation later uncovered suspected fraud across multiple government agencies.

MSD Group General Manager George Van Ooyen says “Im took advantage of a high trust system designed to financially support New Zealand businesses and keep people in their jobs. The scale of his actions shows a disregard for the wider community and people who were feeling genuine hardship at that time.”

Mr Van Ooyen acknowledged the importance of cross-agency investigations in upholding the integrity of the original Wage Subsidy programme.

“We will continue working closely with other government agencies to investigate these cases and expect further prosecutions to come. We couldn’t do this work without these important partnerships.”

Targeted offending

Inland Revenue (IR) spokesperson Bernadette Newman says prior to COVID-19 Im had used a number of his companies to perpetrate GST fraud against IR.

“When COVID arrived, he saw this as an opportunity to take advantage of the high trust model the Government introduced to get money out quickly to businesses in genuine need.

“The targeted offending against the various IR administered support payments were fundamentally similar to the wage subsidy offending in that they both involved the use of stolen identities as fake employees. Im continued with his tax fraud alongside this.

“While IR contemplated its own prosecution, we decided that a coordinated attack on multiple government agencies deserved a coordinated government response and also referred its cases to the SFO.”

The SFO acknowledged the cooperation and support of Inland Revenue, Police, and the Companies Office throughout this investigation.