The new head of the Serious Fraud Office has set a deadline of March 31 to decide whether charges will be laid against finance companies the office is investigating.
However, that may be too late for some.
Adam Feeley, a lawyer who joined the SFO last November, said finance companies were now top of the priority list, and the office had already taken far too long to bring charges.
The SFO has yet to officially lay any charges against finance company directors, despite it being more than two and a-half years since the collapse of Bridgecorp, for example, left 14,500 investors $460 million out of pocket.
Mr Feeley said he was loath to criticise his predecessor but in his view the SFO had taken far too long.
"I think the SFO could have moved faster."
Mr Feeley, who would not say how many finance companies he was investigating, said there had been "great difficulty" in some cases in obtaining evidence because it had to come from overseas.
"That is often difficult and bureaucratic."
In other cases, the SFO had faced challenges in getting enough information, he said.
In contrast with his predecessor, Mr Feeley believed finance company investigations were the priority for the SFO.
But the slow response time now could make it harder for some charges to be laid, he said.
Mr Feeley, who previously worked for the Eden Park Redevelopment Board, said the SFO would have to take the passage of time into account.
"That doesn't mean . . . it's too old [and] we can't do anything."
If there was a legitimate reason to investigate a finance company it would be done, even if it was years old.
"However, we do have to balance that with some of the delay."
In some cases, it might be too late to charge anyone, but there was also public interest to be considered in decision-making.
Whether a charge could be laid would take into account how soon the office was aware of the situation and how soon it got access to information.
"If it is simply because there is a delay at our end, we've got to factor that in."
The office has six years to investigate a company once it is made aware of an act of fraud.
Mr Feeley described the current situation with finance company investigations as part of a legacy he did not wish to repeat.
He expected to have decisions on charges by the first quarter of this year, although some would be announced sooner.
In future, the office would react quickly and keep people informed, he said.
He expected relatively simple cases like the recent ASB fraud investigation to take about three months.
More complex cases, such as those of the finance companies, could take up to six months. - Tamsyn Parker.
