Secret letter reveals new evidence against Peter O'Neill
20 June 2014
NICK McKENZIE & RICHARD BAKER | The Age (Melbourne)
PAPUA New Guinea prime minister Peter O'Neill allegedly engaged in "misappropriation, conspiracy to defraud and official corruption", according to explosive new evidence detailed in a top secret letter sent by PNG's corruption taskforce to the country's police chief.
The letter, shown to Fairfax Media by police sources, reveals that the expert testimony of Australian forensic experts - who told PNG investigators that Mr O'Neill signed a letter he had claimed was forged - helped to build a case that “PM O'Neill acted dishonestly and corruptly".
The allegations relate to Mr O'Neill's suspected role using his influence to help allegedly corrupt PNG lawyer Paul Paraka steal tens of millions of dollars in PNG government funds using a letter of authority allegedly authored by Mr O’Neill.
Much of the allegedly stolen money has been laundered through Australian banks in wire transfers which the Australian Federal Police are understood to have examined.
The Paraka scandal has been brewing for months in PNG and climaxed on Monday with the issuing of arrest warrants for Mr O’Neill.
The leaked letter to PNG police commissioner Toami Kulunga states that “fresh evidence” reveals that Mr O’Neill’s “denial of authoring and/or signing the directive letter [used by Mr Paraka to steal funds] … can no longer hold water”.
“We have found that PM O’Neill had knowledge of the Paraka Lawyers’ operations … [and] evidence reveals that under his [Mr O’Neill’s watch] as the Minister for Finance and Treasurer between July 2010 and June 2011 in the then Somare government, a staggering amount of K39.06 million [Kina] was paid to Paul Paraka lawyers through structured and layered payments.”
The leaked letter reveals that experts from a private Sydney firm, Forensic Document Services Ltd, analysed a document that appears to have been signed by Mr O'Neill but which the Prime Minister said had been forged.
The expert advice has confirmed suspicions of PNG fraud and corruption investigators that Mr O'Neill did sign the document, which directed PNG public servants to release funds to Mr Paraka’s firm.
Efforts to arrest Mr O'Neill may complicate the relationship between PNG and Australia, which relies on his government's support to run its Manus Island detention centre.
On Monday, Mr O'Neill enlisted lawyers to challenge any move to charge him.
In February, a district court rejected an earlier effort to arrest Mr O'Neill in connection to the alleged fraud, saying arrest warrants were invalid because they were based on laws that had been repealed.
Last year, Fairfax Media revealed that Mr Paraka had wired some of the allegedly corruptly gained funds to Australia.
Documents show Mr Paraka had been regularly transferring large sums of money to several contacts on the Gold Coast and in NSW. On one day in October 2012, a bank account linked to Mr Paraka wired about $80,000 in three transactions to his Australian-based wives and girlfriends, including one who lives in Sydney's Star City casino complex.
Between February 2012 and February this year, almost $3 million was transferred to Australia from bank accounts linked to Mr Paraka. PNG investigators believe most of these funds were corruptly obtained.
The ability of Mr Paraka - who denies any wrongdoing - to transfer suspicious amounts of money raises questions about what Australian banks, the federal police and the anti-money-laundering agency, Austrac, are doing to block or investigate dirty money.
The ease with which allegedly corrupt PNG officials and businessmen can transfer money to Australia is becoming an increasing concern for law enforcement officials in both countries.
O'Neill uses PM title in power to play political tactics to safeguard himself from the recent evidence presented. No one escapes from the law and his deliberate denial is a sin against man and God. Let justice prevail.
Posted by: Jimmy Awagl | 21 June 2014 at 04:29 PM
O'Neill's days are numbered. Don Polye and James Marape know more than anyone else and, now that O'Neill and Polye are on the opposite poles, the time is ripe for Polye to spill it all and the truth will eventually come out. O'Neill will not escape.
Posted by: Francis S Nii | 20 June 2014 at 11:22 PM
One must assume that there are many wealthy and powerful people in private business and public service involved in fraudulent government transactions so that the system is already rigged.
These cases will never be heard in court until the people in government are utterly removed.
And we thought public private partnership was a new idea?
Posted by: Michael Dom | 20 June 2014 at 10:23 PM
And it is probably worth remembering the important report that prompted this whole saga, the findings of the Commission of Inquiry into the Department of Finance (http://pngexposed.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/the-full-finance-department-commission-of-inquiry-report/).
There are many other prominent individuals censured in this damning report, one of the key people in fact now works in an Australian university.
Posted by: Kristian Lasslett | 20 June 2014 at 07:55 PM