Gerry Otimi Was Taking People's Money 25 Years Ago

In yesterday's blog I discussed how I came to cross paths with Gerry Otimi, currently in the news for what the media are calling 'an immigration scam'. Today I will explain how Gerry took money for Breakdance contests way back in 1984, claimed it was all for the kids, but the kids never seemed to see much of it themselves.

25 years ago I was running the nation's first Breakdance contests at Auckland's YMCA, charging $4 entry, and giving away $1,000-$1,500 in cash prizes EACH NIGHT. Around the same time Gerry Otimi convinced the Auckland City Council to spend $4,000 on a mobile stage that would be wheeled out onto Aotea Square on Friday nights so the streetkids could "do their Bop". I had no problem with that, but Gerry seemed to have a problem with me.

Every week Gerry was running heats on his Aotea Stage with teams competing for the mana of winning, and a trophy (the Otimi Cup!) that they had to give back at the next contest final. So pretty soon the breakdance crews were all coming to my bi-monthly contests to win cash money. Gerry then told the crews involved in his thing that they couldn't be involved in my thing, and that if they did they would be banned from his thing.

It got quite heavy, because there was a Church angle involved. Which Church I'm not sure but some of the kids were very conflicted. I vividly recall one kid telling me that he knew I was not the devil (because he knew me) but that he'd been told I was evil and warned to keep away from me. He was so angst-ridden he was almost crying.

It was silly.

So it kind of developed into an 'Us & Them' situation, with us (those not alligned with Gerry) promenading up one side of Queen Street and them on the other. (By way of backround: I was hanging out with the various crews on Queen Street every Friday and Saturday night, at any given time there were also 200-300 kids wandering around waiting to see if there was going to be a b-boy battle or not. They were f@#king good times!!)

Gerry told The Sunday News (26/2/1984) that I was 'exploiting the bop kids'. Funnily enough he went to the media with these accusations at the very same time that he decided to run his own breakdance contests at the YMCA and to also charge admission. But Gerry was doing it for altruistic reasons! He told the Sunday News that the money raised from his bop contests went into the coffers of the United Youth Society, an organisation he set up with a building society. (The United Building Society, now defunct).

"All the money we raise goes in there and it's controlled by the building society. It's only spent on helping the kids - if they need uniforms for their bop teams, we get money out" said Gerry in the Sunday News article.

Well, that's not actually how it turned out. A few months later I joined* a group of about 30 people (breakdancers and their parents) at the Head Office of the United Building Society in Greys Avenue, Auckland, as answers were sought about the finances of the United Youth Society. Everyone wanted to know where the money was, since they felt Gerry owed them for all the contests, shows, and tours they'd been on.

We were ushered into a conference room and some big-wig at the United Building Society explained that all they had done was set up a Savings Account for the United Youth Society - they had NOT set up any sort of charitable trust and certainly weren't in charge of administering it. They said they had given him $30,000 in sponsorship for his National Breakdance Tour. They were disappointed to learn that Gerry had charged admission into these contests since they had been under the impression these were to be free community events. They said they had no control over the account, they were not Trustees, it was just a simple Savings Account and it was Gerry who had authority to deposit and withdraw monies. Which he had, since there was nothing left in the account.

And that was pretty much the end of it. We left the meeting even more disgruntled but with little option for redress. Gerry had packed up his tent and gone. Where the money went no-one knew, but as far as the various Crews were concerned it hadn't been spent on them. They'd been taken to various parts of NZ (anywhere Otimi had family to run the events for him, I was told), stayed on Marae, watched Gerry collecting loadsa money at the door, and listened to his assurances that it was all going to the United Youth Society and they would all benefit at the end of the day.

I have no doubt that Gerry would say (yes, I'm making assumptions) that the monies received were all koha (donations), that he never benefited personally, and that most of the money was spent on 'administration'. (How much of that 'administration' was spent with relatives staging the various competitions around the country I guess we'll never know). It's the same line he's using now, to explain the money he's taken from Pacific Island overstayers.

I'd also agree that Gerry gave a lot of kids an opportunity to get up on stage and do their thing, and receive the mana and accolades that came with it. I felt I was doing the same with my competitions, the difference being that I was handing out big cash prizes on the night (something the Crews wanted) rather than holding onto it and promising to dole it out later thru some 'Youth Society'.

I kept various Newspaper clippings about Breakdancing, and if you're interested click on the links above. (BTW - back in the 80s we had two daily newspapers: The NZ Herald in the morning, and The Auckland Star in the afternoon). One clipping you won't see is the letter I wrote to the NZ Herald detailing concerns about Gerry Otimi, because it was never published. I'll post that letter in my next blog, it makes interesting reading.

*NB: I was at this meeting because I had just become the manager of The Megazoids (NZ Breakdance Champions) who had been taken on tour by Gerry and returned home with nothing. They had felt hard done by.