Former National Party president Michelle Boag named in connection to high-profile trial

The highest court in the country has dismissed a former National Party president’s last-ditch fight to keep her name secret in connection to a high-profile trial.

The Supreme Court has rejected Michelle Boag’s bid to overturn a ruling allowing her to be named, after the High Court and Court of Appeal also dismissed appeals.

Boag was named during the trial of a prominent businessman who was convicted and jailed after indecently assaulting three men and attempting to bribe one of them to drop his complaint.

Stuff reported the businessman told jurors at the trial he wanted to engage Boag because she had been recommended as someone who was “very good at solving public relations problems”.

But she was not engaged for the work.

Stuff reported Boag said in an affidavit to the court that she had worked hard over the years to make a name for herself based on “integrity, skill and competence”.

If her name was to be connected to the case it would put her reputation in “serious jeopardy”, Stuff reported.

If she was to be named as connected to the case her reputation would be put in “serious jeopardy”.

The businessman cannot be named and last month he appealed his conviction and sentence at the Court of Appeal, where a decision was reserved.

After the four-week trial in March last year, the rich-lister was found guilty of three charges of indecent assault relating to three men, and two charges of attempting to dissuade a witness.

His manager, who has name suppression, and New Zealand entertainer Mika X were given home detention for their part in a plan to convince a man to drop his complaint.