Finance Minister Bill English is defending the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) after its head Adam Feeley celebrated charges against a Bridgecorp director with champagne that belonged to the failed finance company.
SFO Minister Judith Collins has referred the matter to the State Services Commissioner after it was revealed on Friday that Mr Feeley held a staff party to celebrate charges against Rod Petricevic last May and brought along a bottle of champagne that had been owned by Bridgecorp.
"I think it's a storm in a teacup," Mr English said on Monday.
"These agencies have been under a lot of pressure recently because there was a feeling in the community they hadn't been doing their job - and that was one of the reasons people lost up to $8 billion in finance company failures."
Mr English says that in the last couple of years the enforcement agencies have been "getting on the job" and the government had re-regulated the finance sector.
"So it's good to see these agencies pursuing some of the people who ripped New Zealanders off," he told NewstalkZB.
Mr Feeley has explained he acquired the wine when working as chief executive of the Eden Park Redevelopment Board, in the former Bridgecorp offices.
About four bottles had been left behind after the company was liquidated and he "came to possess" one of them.
Bridgecorp collapsed in 2007, owing 14,000 investors more than $450 million.
NZN