The Serious Fraud Office has charge seven people over a series of alleged mortgage frauds between July 2007 and December 2010. The white-collar crime investigator has laid 48 Crimes Act charges against the group, with the primary defendant Eli Devoy, it said in a statement. Devoy, who goes by the name Ellie Stone, faces 26 charges and is accused of …

New Zealand’s trade surplus in April was smaller than expected as a rise in petroleum imports more than offset increasing meat exports after farmer culled their livestock during this year’s drought. New Zealand’s export receipts outpaced imports by $157 million in April for an annual deficit of $694 million, according to Statistics New Zealand. That’s smaller than the monthly surplus …

Wall Street was mixed, paring sharp early losses after disappointing data from China and a slump in Japanese stocks outweighed better-than-expected reports on US jobs and housing. In China, the preliminary reading for a Purchasing Managers’ Index of manufacturing was 49.6 in May, according to HSBC and Markit Economics data. In Japan, the Topix plunged 6.9 percent. Yesterday’s comments by …