Mark Cini has admitted stealing NZ$182,761 in grants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
New Zealand.- The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has reported a Christchurch man named\u00a0Mark Cini<\/strong>, aged 59, has\u00a0pleaded guilty to 39 charges\u00a0related to the theft of NZ$182,761.64 (US$110,625) in class 4 grant funds derived from gambling machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cini was the venue manager of class 4 gambling venue Robbies Riccarton <\/strong>at the time of the offence and was also involved in cricket-related sports bodies. He was convicted under the Crimes Act 1961, including charges of forgery, theft by a person in a special relationship, and dishonestly using a document. Cini is to be sentenced on June 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DIA investigators discovered that between 2018 to 2020, Cini submitted false quotes and instructed his employees to sign grant applications on behalf of different recipients to obtain grant funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vicki Scott<\/strong>, director gambling, DIA, said: \u201cWithin the gambling system, this offending is of the worst kind. It is deliberate, motivated by greed, and deprives legitimate community organisations of grant funding. \u201cThis behaviour is clearly prohibited and is an attack on the integrity of the gambling system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhere appropriate, we will continue to use the full extent of the law to hold those who engage in this kind of dishonest conduct within the gambling system accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mark Cini has admitted stealing NZ$182,761 in grants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Mark Cini, a former venue manager at Robbies Riccarton in Christchurch, New Zealand, has pleaded guilty to 39 charges, including forgery and theft, for illicitly obtaining NZ$182,761 in class 4 gambling grant funds between 2018 and 2020. The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) highlighted the severe breach of integrity within the gambling system, emphasizing its commitment to prosecuting such fraudulent activities.","focusai_entities":"Mark Cini, Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), Robbies Riccarton, Vicki Scott","focusai_location":"New Zealand, Christchurch","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.8), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.7), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"DIA Enforcement Impact","query":"What specific enhancements to class 4 grant application and disbursement oversight will the DIA implement following this high-profile conviction to prevent future internal fraud?"},{"label":"Operator Governance Review","query":"How will this case influence other New Zealand class 4 gambling venue operators to review and strengthen their internal controls and governance frameworks for grant fund management?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439],"tags":[229],"class_list":["post-777014612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","tag-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777014612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777014612"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777014612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777014619,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777014612\/revisions\/777014619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777014612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777014612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777014612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}