Threats against Kiwi 'traitors' investigated

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Auckland police are investigating letters threatening violence against the families of some team members of the Swiss America's Cup syndicate Alinghi.

The letters, sent on Dec. 16 and Dec. 17 by a group calling itself "Teach The Traitors a Lesson," target New Zealand sailors working for the Swiss team and say the group has tracked the movements of their children, police said.

Threats also were made against team members' property and Alinghi's Auckland base, syndicate executive director Michel Bonnefous said.

Bonnefous said police asked the team not to reveal which sailors had been targeted, but they were among the team's New Zealand contingent, which included skipper Russell Coutts and tactician Brad Butterworth.

The letters referred specifically to team members with young children and said they, along with other family members, had been "tracked." They contained personal details about at least one team member.

"I am horrified by the tone of these letters, as I'm sure most New Zealanders will be," Bonnefous said.

"We are co-operating fully with the police to track down and bring the perpetrators to justice. We came here, in New Zealand, to sail, not to have our children threatened."

Jeoff Barraclough, spokesman for the Auckland police America's Cup division, said police were taking the threats extremely seriously.

"There is a difference between nasty letters and threatening letters. Everyone gets nasty letters, but these ones are definitely threatening," he said.

Coutts and Butterworth were part of Team New Zealand's 1995 and 2000 Cup-winning teams but left after the 2000 Cup to join Alinghi, formed by Swiss pharmaceutical billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli.

Their departure, with a large number of Team New Zealand members, angered some New Zealanders and led to the formation of an organization called BlackHeart, which planned to campaign against defecting sailors.

BlackHeart spokesman Dave Walden said his organization had nothing to do with the threats and did not condone them.

"Ours has been a lighthearted campaign," Walden said. "It was as big a surprise to us as to everyone else and I'm sure we're as equally appalled as every other New Zealander.

"We are not a dastardly organization. We aren't a bunch of nutters."

Alinghi will race the San Francisco-based syndicate Oracle in the best-of-nine race final of the Cup challengers series beginning next Saturday. The winner of that series will race Team New Zealand for the America's Cup starting Feb. 15.