Simon William Hall, a former employee of Fisher & Paykel Healthcare (F&P Healthcare), which is based in East Tamaki, has been sentenced in the Auckland District Court today for receiving secret commissions from Middle Eastern clients of F&P Healthcare and for deceiving his employer.
Mr Hall has been sentenced to eight months of home detention.
Mr Hall pleaded guilty in March to one Crimes Act charge of ‘Obtaining by deception’ and two charges under Section 8 of the Secret Commissions Act laid by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Mr Hall committed the offences while in his role as an Area Manager based in Auckland and dealing with companies in the Middle Eastern market. The charges related to payments received by Mr Hall for approving a Saudi Arabian company as a distributor of F&P Healthcare products and a single payment from a Jordanian company which also became a distributor. F&P Healthcare had no knowledge that Mr Hall received those payments. In addition to those offences, Mr Hall made false representations to F&P Healthcare regarding commission payments for installations of products that never took place.
Mr Hall received approximately USD $213,000 in payments.
SFO Director, Julie Read said, “Mr Hall let down his employer and potentially tarnished the reputation of how New Zealand entities do business with overseas operators. New Zealand is known for corruption free business practices and the SFO will continue to act in cases like this to maintain that reputation.”
