The loan, supposedly of $NZ 600 million of Middle Eastern petrodollars (including a "finder's fee" of $NZ 20 million), was to be used to set up a Māori Resource Development Corporation which would use Māori labour to prefabricate houses for export.
Roderick Deane the Chairman of the State Services Commission was asked to investigate, and when he uncovered evidence of departmental incompetence produced a fuller report on Christmas eve.