The hunt is on to recover the $6 million fraudster Michael Swann has been ordered to repay.
The Crown will try its best to get the money back, Crown prosecutor Marie Grills says, but it will be a slow process.
The Crown believed more tainted assets existed, but needed the public's help to pinpoint and recover them, she said.
This month, a High Court judge awarded the Crown the pecuniary penalty order of $6 million on its Proceeds of Crime Act application to try recovering some of the nearly $17 million pocketed by Swann and associate-in-crime Kerry Harford during frauds against the Otago District Health Board between 2000 and 2006, when Swann was the board's IT manager.
Swann was sentenced to nine years and six months' imprisonment in 2009 for his role in the crime, in which he and Harford fraudulently invoiced for IT services.
Harford has been released from prison after serving some of his sentence of four years and three months.
He reached a confidential financial settlement with the board before the pair's trial.
In his judgement on the Proceeds of Crime application, Justice Graham Panckhurst said about $800,000 of property already restrained could go towards repaying the $6 million penalty order.
He also ordered another $3.5 million of other assets belonging to Swann be forfeited to the Crown.
Mrs Grills said no evidence, so far, indicated money was sent overseas and, given Swann's history of hiding assets, undisclosed property was likely still hidden in New Zealand.
What police had managed to identify and had restrained so far - more than $3 million worth of real estate and motor vehicles - had mainly been uncovered using information from the public.
But some of those items, including a $130,000 2006 Volkswagen Touareg SUV, still had not been located.
To track down more of Swann's tainted assets, the Crown was still "fairly dependent" on assistance from the public, she said.
"We have identified other bits and pieces ... that we haven't found and there are various lines of inquiry that we have potentially got to pursue, so that's why any information can be of assistance, because it might just tap into something the police already know and give that extra link."
People could provide information anonymously by calling the Crimestoppers hotline.
When Swann was released from jail, the Crown would not stop him working or owning property, but would follow up any evidence of him owning any significant assets, Mrs Grills said.
He would be free to leave New Zealand, but the debt would remain when he returned and would be owed to the Crown forever, or until it decided to cease taking action to pursue it.
Asked her personal views on the likelihood of recovering the $6 million, Mrs Grills said if possible, the Crown would get the money back.
"We're going to try our best, but it will be a slow process. The Crown is keen to keep the momentum going, so that it is not just an empty order."
A University of Otago academic studying criminal proceeds legislation said he believed thoughts of satisfying the order were optimistic, at best.
Law PhD student Simon Currie said it was clear Swann was not going to co-operate with the authorities, meaning it would take a lot of time, will and money to execute the penalty order beyond the $800,000 worth of assets already restrained.
His impression from his study so far was that penalty orders were granted, but were only rarely substantially executed.
That was possibly because the returns might not warrant the manpower and effort needed to get them.
"It's one thing to get a $6 million order. It's another to actually execute it.
"They [the Crown] have the option, but whether they actually exercise the option, that's the question. I'm very doubtful [they will]."
It was a shame, because if anyone was the ideal person to be made an example of, it was Swann, Mr Currie said.
If he was not pursued extensively, it would send the wrong message to professional crim- inals, that they could get away with this level of fraud, he said.
"I can't imagine a worse instance of theft. This is a patent example of someone who deserves no clemency."
