Financiers want to clear names

Press, 14 January 1987, Page 6

Financiers want to clear names

PA Auckland Two international financiers will visit New Zealand at the end of the month to clear their names unless one receives an apology from the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, says a former Maori Affairs consultant, Mr Rocky Cribb.

A West German financier, Mr Max Raepple, has written an open letter to Mr Lange demanding ah apology for being called a broker of phoney foreign sourced loans. Mr Cribb said yesterday that neither Mr Raepple nor his Hawaiian agent, Mr Steve Thomas, were prepared to allow their reputations to be besmirched by the Prime Minister “who obviously has not checked on their bona fides.” “If the Prime Minister does not apologise, then the men plan to arrive

here around January 26. “They are completely happy to stand up and be counted on the whole deal and demand the right to defend themselves,” Mr Cribb said. He questioned several aspects of the report on the deal by the State Services Commission’s chairman, Dr Rod Deane. He asked why the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Wetere, wrote cancelling the loan on December 18 rather than many weeks earlier if it was such a concern. Mr Cribb said he had told the Minister as early as October 20 that the loan could be raised. “Mr Wetere said to me, ’lf the loan can be got, get it here’.” Mr Cribb said he was an independent consultant appointed by Mr Wetere to follow up business opportunities in the Pacific basin.