A man accused of orchestrating a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme under collapsed NZ insurer CBL, which operated the Assetinsure business in Australia, has approached the Court of Appeal in his bid to keep his identity a secret.

The person is the co-accused with former CBL Insurance CEO Peter Alan Harris. Both have denied the charges filed against them and are set to go on trial in September 2021 at the High Court in Auckland.

According to a report by Stuff, the man’s counsel, David Jones, appealed the earlier decision by Justice Edwin Wylie to withhold the accused’s name suppression at the trial. Crown Solicitor Brian Dickey opposed the continued suppression of his identity. Meanwhile, Justices Patricia Courtney, Mark Woolford and Cameron Mander reserved the decision.

The accused allegedly authorised payments of over NZ$12 million (around AU$11.3 million) to United Speciality Insurance Company in February 2018, violating Reserve Bank regulations.  He is also accused of intentionally concealing the fact that CBL’s term deposit of €12.5 million (around AU$20.1 million) at the National Bank of Samoa was collateral for the €12.5 million which the same bank had lent to a Singapore financial services company.

CBL went into voluntary administration and was later liquidated by order of the High Court in November, 2018.