An immigration adviser who charged “grossly excessive” fees to migrant workers for jobs with her husband’s company has had her adviser’s licence cancelled, with a tribunal chair criticising her lack of remorse.

It was a Stuff investigation in 2023 which revealed Jane Ma was charging clients 85,000RMB (about $19,500) for work which other advisers estimated should cost only $1500 to $3000.

Ma didn’t tell her clients the jobs were with her husband Hao Zhang’s construction company - and in at least two cases, a disciplinary tribunal has found, those jobs did not exist…

Ma tearfully told Stuff she had done nothing wrong, claimed Jun was sacked two months into his employment, and that her fees were reasonable…

The Immigration Advisers Authority said it had referred multiple complaints against Ma to the tribunal for giving wrong and misleading advice, failing to disclose the conflict of interest while arranging employment with her husband’s company, and unprofessionally representing their circumstances to Immigration New Zealand…