THERE BE CONMEN AMONGST US

It was early 1999 and several Hokianga hapu had just been hit by a weather bomb that had washed away or ruined houses, marae, infrastructure and an entire Area School.  But one of those hapū was also hit by an even worse disaster – a conman and his flying monkeys.

This conman ran a version of the Nigerian Scam with his own special twist promising people new houses and infrastructure, as well as tino rangatiratanga and freedom from the Crown and it’s systems in exchange for megabucks that they could liberate from a bank in Nigeria for a relatively small fee of anywhere between a couple of hundred to tens of thousands of dollara, depending on how much they had and how much they believed.

This link https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/.../unexpecte.../nigerian-scams gives a good summary of how that scam worked.

As soon as we got whiff of this conman’s stench, we began to spread the word – kia tupato (be cautious). We also contacted Fair Go whose research found that, even before he and his flying monkeys hit our hapū, he’d already left a trail of broken promises, dreams and hearts behind in Rotorua, Auckland and other places where he’d scammed marae, gangs, a church and members of his own whanau.

One of his whānau victims sent a message via the ensuing Fair Go programme saying, “[Cousin] you took my love for you and twisted it into a hook which you used to take, take and take until I had nothing left to give. When did you ever ask … [my] permission to become your personal social welfare office?”

Most of his supporters were mainly kaumatua and kuia who went to their graves waiting for a return on what they gave him, including cash, paying his bills, buying him food, giving him places to live and access to their phone, internet and lines of credit, paying for his airfares and other travel costs. But they also gave him their love, loyalty and trust – their mana. In exchange he violated it all.  

I recall a description in Rolling Stone of the financiers who sparked the 2008 crash in the US. “Like a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Well, that’s how this conman and others like him operated then and are still operating now, only they are wrapped around the face of Māori.

So if you meet anyone who titles themselves with some grand sounding name like His Excellency Chief whatever, who has a flash website and/or loud supporters, who spouts tino rangatiratanga and promises they can access megabucks from overseas via either a foreign bank, government, monarch (or other entity) in exchange for you giving them something; wise up whānau – or get ready to wave your mana and your money bye-bye. 

You’ve been warned, there be conmen amongst us and they’re not necessarily Crown agents.  Kei a rātou iaiana (up to you now).