milllions were awarded to members of founder Rongo Wetere's family.

Mather, long-serving chief executive of Maori Television until he resigned in 2013 to take up the wananga job, said he received a text on November 19 confirming a payment had been made to an offshore account "as requested".

He launched an investigation and the payment was frozen in a bank account in Hong Kong. "The process to repatriate the funds is underway."

Mather said police here and in Hong Kong had immediately been alerted and Audit NZ was also notified.

He would not comment on the circumstances around Koroheke's departure as it was an "employment matter".

He sent an internal letter this month saying she had tendered her notice "and will be leaving us for family commitments".

Koroheke is an experienced accountant who wasThe owners of Silverstone are on track to make a £46.9m profit after giving the red light to the British Grand Prix seven years early, according to the latest company filings.

The British GP, launched in 1950, is F1’s oldest race. For the past 31 years it has been held at Silverstone, which is owned by the British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC), a group of 850 motorsport luminaries including Nigel Mansell and Lewis Hamilton.

In July last year it abruptly put the brakes on the race by triggering a break clause in its contract and announced that the Northants venue would drop the race after 2019 “because it is not financially viable”. The British GP has to rely on ticket sales alone to cover the running costs as well as