The America’s Cup holders Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) has issued a statement calling for the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to account for their actions.
ETNZ was cleared of financial wrongdoing in August, following an audit by MBIE of the public funding for the event to the organising body, America’s Cup Events (ACE).
ETNZ has condemned the actions of MBIE, the government department in charge of next year’s America’s Cup event, claiming that MBIE acted inappropriately and in bad faith during the investigation.
The team has released three formally ‘confidential’ letters and an email in conjunction with their media statement, which it said substantiated the claims and call MBIE to account for their actions.
Emirates Team New Zealand Statement on the Release of Letters:
‘In the face of further defamatory and baseless allegations again being levelled at ETNZ/ACE and its Directors we feel that we must now set the record straight having tried to respect a due process in this saga all year.
We have wanted to avoid such a public condemnation of MBIE but given their moves to conceal their totally inappropriate behaviour through this protracted contractual process, we now feel obliged to release a suite of letters addressed to MBIE and Ministers which call MBIE to account for their actions.
These letters paint quite a different story than that currently being presented.
As we state in these letters we would welcome the intervention of the Ombudsman or Public Services Commission to look at MBIE’s actions through this protracted process.’
Released documentation available here . . .
Related Post:
America’s Cup – ETNZ Cleared of Financial Impropriety
America’s Cup – New Zealand High Court locks-down confidential audit