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when seeking assistance. On 16 December 2011, the letter was drafted, and then given to McMorran. He discussed it with Wormald, who was out of Wellington for the day, and then signed it on his behalf. The letter says: "Ofcanz holds an interest in a group of persons known as the Mega Media Group, due to them being the subjects of international arrest warrants issued by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation in regards to large scale copyright infringements and money laundering offences."

The claim was inaccurate — no arrest warrants existed until 5 January 2012.

It is unknown whether the GCSB's agreement to help was based on an assumption that arrest warrants did exist, as Wormald had stated in his earlier letter.

THE POLICE AND the spies rumbled onwards, now on a collision course with the law. The GCSB was itself in an unusual situation at exactly the time the illegal spying operation was to take place. The bureau was changing directors — again.

Former NZ Defence Force leader Air Marshal Sir Bruce Ferguson left in 2010, replaced by former diplomat Simon Murdoch, who had just carried out a review of the intelligence agencies. Murdoch was only in as a temporary measure while a full-time director was sought. Another former NZDF chief, Lieutenant General Sir Jerry Mateparae, stayed for just four months, leaving to become Governor-General. Murdoch returned again in a caretaking role while a new director was sought. Expatriate Kiwi Ian Fletcher was hired from abroad to take up the role in February 2012, creating a six-week gap over Christmas which was filled by long-serving bureau lawyer Hugh Wolfensohn.

Wolfensohn was the wrong spy in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had dedicated decades to the GCSB, embedding a reputation as a safe pair of hands, even as the organisation became so withdrawn few in it knew what others were working on. He had come to New Zealand from the UK, having attended Oxford University in the early 1970s before joining the Royal Navy and training as a lawyer. He moved to New Zealand in 1986 and spent two years at the New Zealand Royal Navy, rising to the position of legal officer before moving to the GCSB in 1988. There, he held the legal advisor's role, known by the designation CX, and eventually rose to become operations director, deputy director and chief legal adviser.

And he would become the fall guy for much of what followed. But

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