 Wishart was assigned by the TV3 network to report on the case, and came into possession of some confidential business transaction papers that became popularly known as "The Winebox documents" because they had first turned up in an old wine carton.The documents detailed extensive tax avoidance and tax evasion schemes run through Cook Islands offshore companies associated with an entity part owned by the New Zealand Government state bank, the Bank of New Zealand, and merchant bank Fay Richwhite, whose principals Sir Michael Fay and David Richwhite were closely connected to both the Labour and National political parties.Although Winston Peters and other financial journalists and newspapers also had copies of the Winebox documents, it was Wishart who first identified the key "Magnum" and "JIF" transactions, later confirmed by the Privy Council and the New Zealand Court of Appeal to be prima facie criminal fraud.