New Zealand lawmaker accuses opposition leader of corruption

A New Zealand lawmaker has accused opposition leader Simon Bridges of corruption by deliberately hiding a donation from a wealthy Chinese businessman.

Jami-Lee Ross made the allegation Tuesday and then announced he was resigning from Parliament. Ross said he regretted his complicity in the scheme to split a party donation of 100,000 New Zealand dollars ($66,000) into a series of smaller amounts to avoid it being publicly disclosed.

Ross said he planned to provide evidence to police and to release a phone conversation with Bridges that he’d secretly taped.

Soon after, Bridges said the National Party caucus had unanimously voted to expel Ross, “who’s lying, who’s leaking, who’s lashing out.” Bridges did not answer specific questions about the allegation but said he’d done nothing wrong and welcomed a police investigation.