Alleged fraudsters Jason Westmoreland and William Manning were hours from fleeing New Zealand in March 2024. A scammed “client” of their Lower Hutt-based company Ameribuild Ltd got wind of it, by way of a chance encounter in a pet shop where they were seen buying airline carriers for their three cats. Several of their local victims who had become acquainted via a Reddit page joined the dots and believed that they were planning to flee the country leaving unanswered questions as to the status of clients’ orders, deposited funds or full payments. On discovering a removal truck in their driveway the clients contacted the Police, who arrested the pair.
Ostensibly, Ameribuild Ltd’s main business activity was the supply of uPVC double-glazed windows and frames imported from Westmoreland and Manning’s native United States. We understand that the owners had other jobs in the Wellington area and ran the company as a side hustle. Despite Ameribuild being secondary employment for its owners, it managed to “lose” around NZD 3 million (USD 1.7M) mostly by taking payments from new clients to fulfil older clients’ orders, which appears similar to a Ponzi scheme. Its owners maintained the façade as long as they could, while prepared to blow town at short notice.
In subsequent court submissions, Westmoreland and Manning glibly blamed Covid-related shipping delays, apparently meddlesome clients contacting their supplier for order status updates (no order had been placed despite full payment being made), and accountants. If those accountants had even existed, they would have been regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants and bound by its code of ethics, and finding an accountant willing to enable a criminal enterprise (allegedly) would have been nigh on impossible. Being known compulsive liars it should not surprise anyone that they have demonstrated a willingness to play the “victim”, further infuriating those who had been fleeced.
Here in New Zealand it’s relatively easy for individuals facing criminal charges to get interim name suppression and from March until November 2024 media were not allowed to name them. However, their company’s name was not suppressed, so we named it in this article with the boys’ faces pixelated to comply with the name suppression order:
Laundering in Lower Hutt (April 4, 2024)
Domestic mainstream media chose not to name the company until name suppression lapsed in November 2024. A photograph of Westmoreland and Manning in the dock at Lower Hutt District Court taken by The Post in April, was quickly publicised. It’s better than our photos and we give due credit here:
Pair charged with window supply fraud finally named | The Post (November 12, 2024).
We also followed up, albeit with a narrower focus on the implications for Westmoreland’s main job at the time, working as a government administrator with a financial delegation: Counting paper clips for the government (November 14, 2024)
As Westmoreland and Manning attempted to escape the reach of New Zealand’s civil and criminal jurisdictions in relation to a mostly suspicious USD 1.7M black hole, we are sure that they will eventually exit the country either voluntarily, or by way of a deportation order if convicted.
They are entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise by a criminal court, but either way, these “entrepreneurs” will most likely get their passports back and be home some time in 2025 or 2026.
Had they not been tripped up by pet carriers, they would probably have set up shop and started fleecing American consumers by now, far away from pesky Kiwi Redditors. As we have no knowledge of their business activities in their old country or what they have planned, it’s buyer beware!
And yes, we have heard of the FCPA, readers.
The next hearing will be at Wellington District Court on January 15, 2025.
Tristam Price
Editor, Leighton Associates
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