Natural Dairy is in a state of disarray after its front people, Jack Chen and May Wang, were charged with corruption by Hong Kong authorities.

Honk Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption has charged the pair with conspiring to bribe officials with New Zealand properties as well as with money laundering.

An arrest warrant was issued for Jack Chen, the company’s shadowy bankroller after he failed to front.

In 2010, Natural Dairy’s bid to buy the Crafar portfolio of farms was rejected by the Overseas Investment Office after people aligned with the company were deemed to have failed New Zealand’s good character test. 

Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills says the charges justify the government’s decision to stop the company buying Kiwi farms.

“From the Feds point of view it just shows that there is a process in place to make certain that these people are put through a system where we sort out the wheat from the chaff so to speak.”

Media reports suggest the future of the company’s Tauranga milk plant is now in doubt, and so too are the lucrative Noni juice supply contracts the company signed up to in the Pacific Islands. 

Natural Dairy was recently in the Islands trying to buy into primary industry businesses, accompanied by All Blacks legend Michael Jones, who has become a poster boy for Natural Dairy. 
Natural Dairy is also closely aligned with the political party, the New Citizen Party, which contested the Botany by-election earlier this year, and which Jones was touted as a possible election candidate for this year’s General Election.

Yesterday the New Citizen Party announced it would be merging with the Conservative Party.