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Maori activist Gerrard Otimi - Source: ONE News -
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The leader of a self-styled Maori sovereignty group charging $500 for stamps in "passports" has admitted the documents carry no official status.
Gerard Otimi says about 50 families had each paid him $500 for the documents - and in return he gave them $500 of "Maori barter currency" to cancel out the fee.
"The documents are to notarise them, and the Immigration Department, to say they are now under our care," he says.
Otimi agreed it was "exactly right" that the documents had no status at all with the immigration authorities.
Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples told reporters it was "disgusting" scam and could harm Maori-Pacific Island relations.
Otimi's group has been attracting hundreds of people, mainly Pacific Islanders and many of them overstayers, at meetings in South Auckland.
Sharples says the fake passports and visas carried a crown crest as well as the organisers' own flag and crest.
"I really, really feel for the Pacific Island people who have been duped in this way," he says.
Pacific Island Affairs Minister Georgina te Heuheu urged victims to go to the police.
"It's deplorable that anyone would do this to some of the most vulnerable people in our country," she says.
Some Pacific Island people apparently believe the documents give them legal rights to stay in New Zealand, or at least carry some weight with immigration authorities.
One Samoan man said he had paid $500 to join Otimi's hapu after the Immigration Department told him he and his family had to leave the country two months ago.
"It's because these people came to remove us so we asked for help and then we call Gerard Otimi," the man says.
Inspector Karen Wilson said police in Countries-Manukau and the Waikato were scrambling to find out whether any laws had been broken.
"We're very much in the initial phase of gathering information before we can make any assessment on what, if any, offences may have been committed," she says.
It is understood the group offering the fake passports is linked to the Maori sovereignty group Ko Huiarau which was formed in the early 1800s when European settlement began.
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