Fay Richwhite

rdf:langString Fay Richwhite

rdf:langString Fay, Richwhite & Company is the investment vehicle of Switzerland-based New Zealand merchant bankers Sir Michael Fay and David Richwhite. The firm was the prime focus of the "Winebox Inquiry" which dealt with, among other things, tax-avoidance arrangements in the Cook Islands. The publicity surrounding the inquiry generated considerable public ill-feeling towards Fay and Richwhite, and was one of the principal reasons for their emigration to Geneva. Fay, Richwhite were investors in the Bank of New Zealand, which was sold to National Australia Bank in 1992. Fay and Richwhite were also involved in a series of transactions between 1986 and 1993 involving their companies European Pacific Investments; Capital Markets; Fay, Richwhite; the Bank of New Zealand; Tranz Rail; and Telecom New Zealand, transactions in which they personally gained over half a billion dollars at the same time as their minority shareholders lost NZD$277 million. Fay and Richwhite also made NZD$274 million from sales of Telecom New Zealand share options in September 1993 without having to put up any capital in advance. Both men relocated to Geneva in the late 1990s and Richwhite has since moved to London.