Money-for-jobs scam rolls on

The Immigration Service has done nothing about an Auckland student recruitment company offering money for jobs, despite being tipped off months ago.

Company emails offering a $10,000 "grant" to any employer willing to take on an international graduate for "work experience" were sent to immigration consultants and even National MP Pansy Wong.

The Sunday Star-Times was alerted to the company, Wealand International (NZ), trading as Graduate House and operating out of offices in Auckland's Queen St, after last week exposing a similar money-for-jobs racket.

Under that scam, students who could not get jobs relating to their qualifications were paying up to $30,000 for false job offers to gain the points needed for permanent residency.

Graduate House has sent emails seeking businesses willing to take on students for three months of work experience on a "volunteer arrangement" and says "if the employer decides to employ an international graduate, Graduate House will pay the employer up to $10,000 as a grant for keeping the grad employed here in New Zealand". The email lists the names of 14 students and their areas of expertise.

It is understood several other companies are offering similar deals. It is illegal under the Wages Protection Act to seek or receive any premium in respect of the employment of any person.

Wealand International, whose sole shareholder is a Xu Weishan of Shanghai, has been blacklisted by China's Ministry of Commerce, which has warned people not to believe the company's claims. The company's New Zealand representatives did not return calls from the Star-Times.

The New Zealand Association of Migration and Investment (NZAMI) tipped off the Immigration Service about Graduate House earlier this year.

Mary Anne Thompson, the Labour Department's deputy secretary of workforce, said "initial investigations" had been completed.

"It appears that if further information and statements can be gathered, there may be enough evidence to consider a prosecution under the Immigration Act."

Wong said she was shocked that the Immigration Service had not taken action against the company. She said it was symptomatic of the service's perceived indifference to such scams that had proved frustrating for anyone tipping it off to fraudulent activity.

The NZAMI said in its July newsletter that companies such as Graduate House might be exploiting a loophole that meant it was illegal to obtain a job offer through payment in relation to a residency application, but not so for a work permit.

Thompson confirmed there was nothing in the skilled migrant category policy to stop someone paying for a job offer to gain a work visa, although it would be illegal under the Wages Act.

Meanwhile, justice campaigner Dermot Nottingham, who exposed the immigration racket featured in last week's Star-Times, says the investigator looking into the scam has indicated the two students he hired will be offered amnesty in exchange for their testimony. This will allow the pair, identified by their first names, Henry and Hayley, to remain living and working in New Zealand.

Nottingham said the investigator told him the priority was to get to the bottom of claims by one of the scam's ringleaders that he had a mole inside the Immigration Service. The investigator has now viewed copies of the tapes and Thompson said the department was continuing with its investigation.

- © Fairfax NZ News