The jury trial of two former Christchurch Earthquake Authority (CERA) employees accused of corruption began in the Christchurch High Court on Monday.
Gerard Gallagher and Simon Nikoloff both pleaded not guilty after being charged with several counts of corrupt use and attempted corrupt use of official information.
The pair, who had been employed to help find investors to start new developments in quake-hit Christchurch, were alleged by the prosecution to have acted corruptly and attempted to insert their own private company into two property deals for personal financial gain.
Prosecutor Ann Toohey on Monday told the court that CERA had been set up to encourage the rebuild of the inner city.
“They are on trial today for using insider information they got working for the Government,” she said.
It’s alleged the pair used insider information in 2014 for the sale and purchase of the Youth Hostel Association (YHA) building on Manchester Street.
They were also accused of using confidential financial information to obtain commercial advantage in relation to the Stonehurst site after moving to Ōtākaro in 2016.
“You're going to hear that those deals didn't actually materialise. They didn't get the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but they did get other advantages,” Toohey said.
She said the defendants “maintain they aren’t corrupt” and that CERA had been aware of the pair’s “outside business interests”.
The men’s defence lawyer, James Rapley, said CERA management “knew about private interest” in the YHA site.
The trial will run for four weeks.
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