Millions vanished after followers trusted influencers over financial regulators

Money raised like capital, protected like nothing

A Stuff investigation published on 12 September 2026 reports that followers put millions into an unregulated investment operation promoted through spiritual-influencer channels, and that the money is now gone. The detail is grim but the mechanism is familiar. When money is raised like capital but sits outside the regulatory perimeter, the losses land on people who mistook trust for verification.

New Zealand runs a robust framework for regulated investment. The Financial Service Providers (Registration) Regulations 2020 set out who must register, and the FMA’s crowdfunding guidance is clear that any intermediary standing between a company making share offers and investors needs a licence. The regulated managed fund sector held $395,870 million as of June 2026, all of it subject to disclosure, licensing and conduct obligations.

The danger is at the edges. Fundraising framed as charitable, rewards-based or communal can occupy a grey zone until the FMA or Serious Fraud Office reclassifies it as an investment scheme. That reclassification almost always arrives after the money has moved.

The FMA is moving faster, but it is still reactive

The regulator has been unusually active in 2026. On 5 February it released its ‘Talking About Money Online’ guide, setting conduct rules for influencers and content creators discussing money. The guide carries penalties of up to $200,000 for individuals providing regulated financial advice without a licence, makes clear that disclaimers do not stop a statement being classed as advice, and holds financial advice firms liable for content produced on their behalf.

In April 2026 the FMA joined a global Week of Action involving 17 regulatory authorities and contacted 14 financial influencers. FMA manager regulatory services Samantha McGuire described a recurring pattern of ‘pyramid scheme or multi-level marketing… claims of lifestyle, you can get rich fast, put in maybe a couple of hundred dollars and suddenly you’re getting these massive returns’.

The problem is that enforcement is inherently after the fact. By the time a scheme is named, the harm is done.

The numbers are getting worse

FMA executive director Clare Bolingford called the growth in investment scams targeting New Zealanders ‘reasonably exponential’ in April 2026. The FMA has identified $265 million defrauded, of which roughly $126 million involved authorised payments, where victims willingly transferred funds. That distinction is critical, because authorised-payment fraud is far harder to recover.

The methods are sharper. The FMA has flagged fraudulent platforms such as BG Wealth and DSJ EX, linked to 813 websites, recruiting through WhatsApp and Viber with promises of 100% returns, alongside AI deepfakes impersonating credible financial figures. The FMA’s own analysis shows influencers routinely presenting crypto and forex as safe and easy, with victims discovering too late that the platform was unregulated.

Affinity is the oldest trick in the book

The spiritual-influencer angle is not new. It is textbook affinity fraud, where a shared identity substitutes for governance. In April 2025 a South Auckland trio were fined over a $300,000 pyramid scheme that hit an estimated 240 Pasifika community members through the ‘6K Gifting Co-operative’. Earlier, Alex and Aroha Tuira were jailed after obtaining $3.9 million through a Ponzi scheme targeting the te ao Maori community, building close personal relationships with investors who had limited experience.

The pattern holds every time. People who would never hand cash to a stranger will hand it to someone they know from church, their marae or their Instagram feed. Trust does the work that a prospectus and a licence check should be doing.

What this means if you raise or invest money

The context sharpens the risk. Liquidator appointments hit 710 in Q1 2026, up 4.9% on a year earlier, after a 34.7% jump in the final quarter of 2025. A stressed economy pushes more people to chase returns outside the mainstream, where the promises are biggest and the protections thinnest.

For investors, Bolingford’s test is the right one, if the return sounds too good to be true and the promoter seems to have another agenda, stop and verify licensing on the Financial Service Providers Register. For anyone raising money, even informally through a community network, the FMA’s rules apply regardless of framing. Disclaimers offer no shelter, and the $200,000 penalty for unlicensed advice is a real number. Social credibility has never been due diligence, and the people learning that lesson right now are paying for it in full.

Sources

• Stuff investigation: They raised millions, their followers, now it’s all lost (2026-09-12)
• Finfluencers: Too good to be true? (2026-04-23)
• AI deepfakes driving surge in investment scams, FMA warns (2026-04-22)
• FMA Joins Global Initiative Tackling Unlawful Influencers (2026-04-22)
• FMA moves against finfluencers breaching online conduct rules (2026-02-05)
• Occasional Conversations Series – Finfluencers (2026-04-20)
• Latest company statistics – Companies Office (2026-08-10)
• South Auckland trio fined in $300k pyramid scheme targeting Pasifika community (2025-04-09)
• Alex and Aroha Tuira jailed for $3.9m Ponzi fraud