Neil Whittaker (pictured), the former high-profile MD of Fuji Xerox NZ (FXNZ) and Fuji Xerox Australia (FXA), has been named in court documents as one of two defendants in a civil case launched by Fuji Xerox New Zealand following a $450 million accounting scandal.
A second defendant has applied for an interim order for name suppression and has yet to be identified.
In a Court Business register posted by the High Court of New Zealand, civil case 404-2073 is described as: Fuji Xerox New Zealand v Neil Whittaker. 2nd defendants application for interim order for name suppression.
The case went before Justice Downs in No. 4 court at the High Court in Auckland yesterday. The name suppression application for the second defendant was "granted until further order," said High Court Auckland Deputy Registrar, G.C. Sulliman, in a brief statement.
Whittaker was paid more than $A1 million last year to leave his job as MD of FXA after parent Fujifilm first uncovered ‘accounting irregularities’ at its Australasian subsidiaries.
Fuji Xerox New Zealand managing director Gavin Pollard left the company suddenly in August 2017 before launching legal action with the NZ Employment Relations Authority in a bid to win back his job, claiming he’d been made a scapegoat over the accounting scandal.
Fuji Xerox began its civil case in September 2017 against what it described as ‘former senior Fuji Xerox New Zealand executives,’ but the company did not identify the names or the number of former employees involved.
“Fuji Xerox is committed to resolving these past issues and ensuring they do not happen again,” said Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific chief executive Isamu Sekine, in a statement at the time.
An independent investigation earlier this year by parent Fujifilm Holdings identified a “sales at any cost” culture at the Australasian subsidiaries that had led to “inflated revenues.”
New Zealand’s Serious Fraud Office says an investigation relating to Fuji Xerox is “ongoing,” but has released no further details.