Xu, Chen and Jiang will now be sentenced later this year, however Justice Katz was concerned about them skipping the country despite their passports being surrendered.

"I'm slightly worried about the access to false passports after what I just summarised a moment ago," she said.

Xu lives in New Zealand with her teenage daughter and was not a flight risk, Simperingham argued. He added he would be seeking a sentence of home detention for his client.

Justice Katz granted Xu bail until sentencing. Chen and Jiang were remanded in custody.

She said she was particualry concerned about Chen's flight risk after he had been able to access false passports as part of the fraud.

Chen's lawyer Sam Wimsett said his client had not personally benefited from the broader fraud and he will provide the court with a cultural report prior to sentencing, which he says will show the Chinese cultural norms of how Chen responded to the requests and demands of Huang.

Jiang's counsel Julie-Anne Kincade said she would be providing a similar cultural report.

SFO prosecutor Todd Simmonds said he will be calling for periods of imprisonment for all three, and Justice Katz agreed that was the likely outcome.

Simmonds, when delivering the SFO's case, said the group used false information or documents, or withheld information from three banks, to obtain loans and purchase properties between December 2011 and October 2015.

The banks included BNZ, ANZ and an overseas bank, which has its name suppressed.

The scheme involved loans of more than $54m, 57 applications for finance, 76 Auckland and Hamilton properties, and bribes to two bankers who approved some of the loans.

Huang was the architect of the scheme and pleaded guilty to 10 charges late last year and was sentenced to four years and seven months' imprisonment earlier this year by Justice Graham Lang.

He managed the property construction company LV Park, which owned and controlled the properties.

LV Park would obtain cheap finance and retain control of the properties to "dramatically increase" the size of its portfolio, Simmonds said.

Kang Huang was already sentenced to four years and seven months' imprisonment. Photo / Michael Craig

The SFO said Huang began the scam because it was cheaper to fund the operation with home loans from banks rather than via finance companies, due to the higher costs associated with commercial lending.

Xu had supplied many of the false documents to the banks or supplied them to Chen, who gave them to the banks, Simmonds said.

Chen faced 12 charges, two of which are representative for his alleged deliberate intention to deceive the banks of the identity of the true property buyers.

He also was accused of failing to twice identify the real borrower, a further seven charges for providing the alleged false and misleading documents, and one representative charge under the Secret Commissions Act for the kickback payments.

Simmonds said the lawyer acted for the reported vendor and buyer in the majority of the property transactions.

Jiang, in his role at the BNZ, processed and approved the loan applications in exchange for cash bribes.

He faced a total of 26 charges for obtaining by deception and the alleged kickback.

Simmonds said the scheme became an "increasingly organised, systematic and complex deception of the banks".