The head of New Zealand kiwifruit marketer Zespri has reportedly said NZD$6.3 million (US$4.4 million) has been either spent or provisioned on legal costs of its Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation. 

CEO Lain Jager told local media Bay of Plenty Times Weekend he still did not know the focus of the investigation, now on its third year, or when it might be completed.

"The SFO investigation is ongoing and Zespri continues to fully co-operate," he was quoted as saying.

"The SFO has declined to communicate the focus of its investigation, but has requested several terabytes of information and around 2.8 million historical emails. Providing this information has required extensive legal review."

The story said that as the subject of an SFO investigation, Zespri subject to the wide-ranging powers of the Serious Fraud Office Act 1990, which give the public service department the power to demand a company to produce for inspection any documents which it believes may be relevant.

The act also says the director may require the person producing the document to "provide an explanation of the history, subject matter, and contents of the document and to answer any other questions which arise from that explanation ..."

While there has been speculation the Zespri investigation is related to Chinese Customs invoicing fraud issues, Jager reportedly said the SFO has never confirmed this.

"We're subject to Section 9 requests, which are broad," he was quoted as saying.

"We can surmise, as I think most people do, that their interest relates to the historic issues in China. But that is a surmise on our part."

He also said the documents requested by the SFO required legal review, and the sheer size of the task over the past two years had seen the cost run to NZD$4.9 million (US$3.4 million), with another NZD$1.4 million (US$1 million) provisioned for the year ahead.

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