Former Green MP Darleen Tana’s ex-husband Christian Hoff-Nielsen has opened a new bike business. 

His former business went into liquidation in July after worker exploitation claims. 

This week Tana was ousted from Parliament after an investigation found she continued to be involved with the company despite claiming not to be – and at times that involvement was “extensive”. 

E Cycles NZ Ltd, trading as Bikes and Beyond, owed Inland Revenue and former employees more than $400,000 when it went into voluntary liquidation on July 16. 

Despite widespread claims of migrant exploitation at his previous business, Hoff-Nielsen registered a new “bicycle hiring” company last week. 

New Zealand Companies Office records show Woohoo Trading Ltd was registered on October 17. 

Hoff-Nielsen is listed as the director and only shareholder of the business, linked to a Waiheke Island address. 

Hoff-Nielsen’s previous bike business traded from three locations – in Newmarket, on Waiheke Island and in Blenheim. 

Hoff-Nielsen’s return to business has dismayed former employees, Stuff reported. 

The ERA ordered E Cycles NZ Ltd to pay former employee Nick Scott almost $23,000 to settle his personal grievance last year. This involved $7962.50 for lost wages and $15,000 compensation for humiliation, loss of dignity and injury to feelings. 

Advocate for Nick Scott, Alex Kersjes, said the new business was “further evidence of this family’s inability to take any accountability for their actions”, Stuff reported. 

In August, Hoff-Nielsen said he was approaching bankruptcy after he could not pay $4385 of parking fines. The magistrate said if he could not pay he must do 80 hours of community service. 

About the same time, Hoff-Nielsen’s E Cycles Ltd was embroiled in the issue with Scott, and another of his companies, Green Wheels Blenheim Ltd, was in front of the ERA for not paying employee Chuck Simpson. 

The ERA concluded Simpson was working for an employer “in the accepted sense” and the owed wages he had claimed were due. 

The ERA ordered Hoff-Nielsen to pay Simpson more than $6000 less income taxes. 

Hoff-Nielsen suggested his lack of specialist legal knowledge had counted against him in Employment Court and related hearings. 

Darleen Tana was ousted from Parliament this week. Photo / Mark Mitchell 

An employment dispute with Argentine migrant Santiago Latour Palma was central to the worker exploitation allegations that have since engulfed the Greens and Nielsen’s ex-partner, former Green MP Darleen Tana. 

On July 17, the Green Party released the executive summary of its report into what Tana knew about allegations of migrant exploitation at her husband’s bike company, E Cycles. 

The report says she continued to be involved with the company despite claiming not to be; and at times that involvement was “extensive”. 

“In summary, it seems her day-to-day operational involvement in E Cycles reduced around mid-2019, but she continued over the following three years to support and assist the business,” the executive summary says. 

Tana has disputed aspects of the report, by lawyer Rachel Burt, and the process used to complete it. 

Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the NZ Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei.