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Immigration adviser on tape offering job for $70k
An immigration adviser has been recorded telling an overseas worker she can help get him residency with a fake job in return for $70,000.
The conversation was taped by migrant, Richard Wu, who arrived from Singapore in May and lost his job two months later. He claims he had already paid $18,000 to the adviser, Heidi Castelucci, for arranging a five-year Accredited Employer Work Visa and what he thought was a legitimate job as a driver and administrator at Liberty Consulting Group in Auckland.
Castelucci is heard in the recordings discussing the job-selling scheme, which she says was her husband Toby Castelucci’s proposal. “So Toby’s idea is that if you need residency sponsorship, we can help you with that all at once…he asked me to call you and ask you, don’t you want us to sponsor your residency directly?
“Then it [residence] takes two years, but there are some costs of the company involved, such as taxes. So every year, just the taxes alone will cost the company about $20,000 extra… Toby’s idea is that if it’s you and your family, it’s $110,000, which includes the company’s additional tax and other costs.”
‘Job-selling’ or charging a premium for a job is an offence, as is immigration fraud. A worker coaxed into working outside the terms of their visa or without paying tax risks them being deported.
Liberty Consulting Group’s sole director and shareholder Toby Castelucci said the company denies the claims.
“It [Liberty] did not offer Mr Wu any position after his employment ended, or to help him find a position with a different employer, in exchange for payment,” he said. “It also did not receive any payment from Mr Wu after his employment was terminated. Any such offer purportedly made to him was made without Liberty Consulting’s knowledge or consent. As his concerns are the subject to a formal complaint, it is not appropriate for Liberty Consulting to comment further at this time.”
In the July recordings, Heidi Castelucci is heard discussing what she said her husband had proposed – a job with a higher salary to get residence, and how Wu’s payments would be made in smaller instalments.
She also discusses how the job purchase price could come down from $110,000 to $70,000 if the migrant paid separately to cover the company’s taxes and costs in ’employing’ him and how he could get an under-the-table job, to pay for his new salary as a business development manager, as well as Liberty Consulting Group’s costs and wage taxes.
Heidi Castelucci holds a provisional licence as an immigration adviser. Until recently, both were listed as shareholders and directors of the New Zealand Language Institute and Foreign Exchange Program, based at the same office in Rosedale.
“Five instalments over two years,” Castelucci, who is also known as Qian Yu told Wu. “With a high salary, once submitted, it’ll be approved no other issues.
“So before you submit your visa (application), you will have paid a total of $45,000, and after two years, when you obtain residency, you’ll pay the remaining $25,000.”
Qian Yu/Heidi Castelucci has a provisional licence. Photo: Immigration Advisers Authority
In another conversation, Wu asks her about keeping a record of the deal. “We cannot give you any agreement, we cannot provide any written documentation, it’s just a gentleman’s verbal agreement,” she said.
Heidi Castelucci told RNZ: “If Mr Wu has particular concerns about my conduct as a Licensed Immigration Adviser, those are appropriately referred to the Immigration Advisers Authority for consideration. It would not be appropriate for me to comment until that process is completed.”
Wu left the country with his children two months ago after taking legal advice, and complaining to the Employment Relations Authority.
He arrived in New Zealand on a work visa, with a pre-arranged job offer at Liberty Consulting Group.
During the two months he was there, he worked on reception and administration, but claims he was expected to take his boss’s children to school and do extra unpaid work in the evenings, picking up people from the airport. While working in reception, he claimed he overheard complaints of people whose visa applications had not been submitted, and that another employee was sacked after 11 days.
He told RNZ he was sacked after being pulled into meetings where he was ‘accused of poor performance without prior notice or the opportunity to prepare a defence’. He claimed Castelucci told him to write a resignation letter, suggesting it would work out better for him with Immigration New Zealand.
Wu has children, aged six and 12, and their student visas also depended on him having a work visa.
rnz
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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