The Gisborne farmer behind New Zealand’s largest-ever GST fraud has been ordered to hand over up to $16 million in real estate and other assets to the Crown.  John Richard Bracken, then 54, was jailed for eight years and six months in 2021 after being found guilty of 39 charges of dishonestly claiming and receiving GST (goods and services tax) refunds.  Bracken, who benefited by about $17.3m through his fraudulent activity, has since been paroled.  Restraining orders were made over Bracken’s farms, other real estate and assets while the criminal case against him was in train.  Then, in 2022, police applied under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 to permanently seize property and assets that Bracken had obtained through “significant criminal activity” and forfeit them to the Crown.  The police application extended to property owned or controlled not just by Bracken, but also by his company Bracken Enterprises Ltd (BEL), a family trust and various named members of his family.  John Bracken was convicted after an eight-day trial in 2021. Photo / Paul Rickard  The application covered the Bracken family’s $3.8m “original farm” near Matawhai, inland from Gisborne, a $6.9m property nearby called Burnbrae, a holiday home at Ōpōtiki and houses in Gisborne.  Bracken opposed the police application to permanently seize his assets, and it went before Justice Dale La Hood in the High Court at Gisborne to be decided.  Justice La Hood’s decision, released this week, granted a forfeiture order over most of the property, but allowed the family to keep the original farm, which is registered to the Bracken Family Trust.  “The relief [of excluding the original farm] will allow the innocent trust beneficiaries to continue to benefit from the financial, physical and emotional security provided by the generational family farm acquired prior to the offending,” Justice La Hood said.  GST claims filed for fictitious transactions  Bracken committed his tax fraud between 2014 and 2018 by claiming GST refunds falsely stating he had exported products – including bottled water, milk, logs, plywood and honey – that he had bought from New Zealand suppliers.  At his trial, it was accepted that Bracken legitimately exported goods to the Pacific — mainly plywood and timber — but it was nowhere near the level he purported for his scam.  During the offence period, Bracken claimed to have entered into transactions totalling about $133m, which enabled the $17.3m refunds.  New Zealand Customs records show that goods he actually exported amounted to about $478,000.  A woman involved in preparing invoices for Bracken contacted the Serious Fraud Office in 2017 after she became concerned that what she was doing was illegal.  “The Commissioner [of Police] emphasises that the fraud involved not merely the avoidance of a tax debt, but the actual receipt of more than $17 million to which there was no entitlement, which represent funds stolen from the New Zealand taxpayer,” Justice La Hood said.  Other assets covered by the order  The forfeiture order issued by Justice La Hood covers real estate and other assets, up to a maximum amount of $16.02m.  In addition to the Burnbrae property, the holiday home and the houses, it also orders forfeiture of more than $1m in bank deposits, along with motor vehicles, farm machinery and a jet ski.  A further $1.3m in cash was transferred to the Inland Revenue Department in 2024.  Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.