America's Cup 2020: Top event managers Tom Mayo, Grant Calder named Team NZ 'whistleblowers'

Two of New Zealand's top event managers have been named as the contractors fired by Team New Zealand as "informants" in a funding investigation.

Tom Mayo and Grant Calder were brought in to help run the America's Cup next year, until they were fired by Grant Dalton, after he said they leaked confidential information. 

But they say they're 'whistleblowers', who took their concerns to the Government over how public money was being misspent.

Mayo and Calder were behind Auckland's stopover of the 2018 around-the-world Volvo Ocean Race, regarded as one of the most successful in the event's history.

"They have managed the last two stopovers in Auckland, and stopovers in Australia and China," says yachting commentator Tom Ehman. "They have an excellent reputation as an event delivery agency." 

When Team NZ won the America's Cup back, Mayo and Calder got the job of running the event, along with $40 million of Government and Auckland Council money to put it on. 

But between then and now, they had a falling out with Dalton, who is chief executive of both the event and the team. 

They worked at the team's Auckland Viaduct headquarters, until Dalton fired them, saying they leaked confidential information. 

"We were worried that we had moles in the organisation that leaked," says Dalton. "We do, we dealt with them and now we're answering the questions."  

But Mayo and Calder deny that, claiming they went to the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, after they became concerned about how things were being handled. 

Their lawyer told Newshub: "Our clients have raised matters confidentially to MBIE and they request that their identity remains confidential, so as not to prejudice the review and their position as a whistleblower in that process."

Dalton doesn't agree.

"The first thing is they aren't covered by the whistleblower legislation and they would tell you that's correct as well," he says. 

Team NZ have been back training this week, but the saga has provided a major distraction, especially after MBIE and Auckland Council revealed that $3 million was paid into a Hungarian account. 

The team say they were scammed and Dalton says he signed off on the payment, but Mayo and Calder's accountant set it up. Their lawyer said they couldn't comment on specific claims. 

"Will this tarnish the reputation of the Cup or of New Zealand?" says Ehman. "No, maybe short term a little bit.

"Now, the reputation of some of the people involved will not have been enhanced by all of this." 

While there will be winners on the water next March next year, a winner will be decided off it much sooner, when MBIE reports on exactly what happened and who is responsible.