VIPs named Convicted bank robber Kapris names ministers Aimo, Pruiatch, Deputy Speaker Marus as ‘allies’
CONVICTED criminal William Nanua Kapris has named State ministers Patrick Pruaitch and Tony Aimo and Deputy Speaker Francis Marus in his evidence at the Madang National Court hearing last week as accessories.
He also named a policeman Phillip Bokom as the officer who supplied police uniforms to carry out his robbery at the Metals Refinery Operations in Port Moresby in 2007 and Malaysian William Lee who resides at Hohola as the person who operated a ‘black bank’ and took possession of all the gold bullions, gold nuggets and jewelry from the MRO robbery.
He also named Gerehu-based man Alphonse Silas (Alphie) as the person who introduced him to Lee.
He requested the National Court hearing in Madang to issue an order for those implicated to be investigated and that he become a state-witness in each of the cases.
Kapris aged 33 from Karapia village in Yangoru, East Sepik Province, made the request during a lengthy allocutus which he delivered to a full courtroom last Thursday.
Kapris has been convicted for the armed robberies conducted on the Metals Refinery Operations in Port Moresby in 2007 and the Madang Bank South Pacific in 2008.
For the Madang BSP heist, a total of 14 people were arrested and charged by police. Two were acquitted while the remaining 12 including Kapris are now awaiting their sentences to be handed down by the Madang National Court.
The first to take the dock to deliver his allocutus, Kapris said as a simple man he only executed the plans and had done so successfully with added assistance of the staff of the two companies, police and William Lee, a Malaysia who lived in Hohola 2 in Port Moresby.
KAPRIS said the MRO robbery was conducted soon after he had escaped from custody in Port Moresby where he was serving time for two crimes he had been charged with in Kimbe.
He said he had sought refuge at Gerehu Stage-6 where he met up with a woman named Pauline Moses whom he married and done so unaware of her own criminal background.
He said it was through Pauline that he met a person called Alphone Silas alias “Alphie” who subsequently introduced him to Mr Lee.
He said in tok pisin that Alphie had told him that a heist was being planned on MRO and that the gold retrieved would be exported to Singapore using Mr Lee’s export license.
He was assured that the plan would go undisturbed as security issues for that day would be taken care of.
Kapris told the court that the police uniforms which were used were provided by a policeman from Gerehu whom he named as Phillip Bokom from Manus province. He said the staff from MRO involved were a person he recalled only as Doisa, a Highlander who was the chief security officer andTom Gabi, a man from Markham in Morobe province who worked as the smelter.
He said on a Wednesday, he and four others dressed in police uniforms and between 6:30-7pm they got in a Fifth Element Hire Car belonging to MI Rent A Car. Before boarding the vehicle, they changed the registration plate of the vehicle.
He said they drove out of Gerehu Stage Six where they were based and got a call from Doisa, telling them to standby as he was dropping of MRO staff.
He said they waited at the Waigani Roundabout and Doisa drove the company bus with three other workers past them and they followed him to Rainbow where they stopped him and made him get out. He said after dropping of the three workers, they proceeded to Hohola 2 to pick up the company’s chief accountant whom he only named as Fiona before they headed for MRO premises.
He was shown that the place had been strategically manned by several police vehicles at locations around the area they would hit.
“Fiona, myself and Doisi went into the stronghold and got 15 gold bars, five weighing 10 kilograms while 10 weighed 20 kilograms each, cash totaling close to K1million, gold jewelry and gold nuggets were all put in a trolley and pushed out of MRO unloaded onto the MRO bus and driven to Gold Club Lamana.
“This was around 8-9pm. At lamina they changed vehicles and jumped into onto a Toyota ten-seater belonging to Mr Lee, according to Mr Kapris
They proceeded to Erima where the cash was divided and he was given K10,000.
He said some of the money were given to the police for their part in providing security.It was there that Mr Lee then arrived and the gold given to him with word that they would be shipped and they dismissed.
Kapris said he went to Lae with the assurance his share of the proceeds from the Gold would be sent to him but when that did not happen, he called Mr Lee and issued threats and in August a ticket was sent to him to travel to Port Moresby.
He was taken to a Fong Restaurant at Gordon where there he was told by Mr Lee that the money from the gold had been used to buy the restaurant.
He also learnt at the time Mr Lee was operating a Black Bank while the rest of the money was in investments in Singapore of which he claimed he had been able to see in person - courtesy of Lee and another Asian he named as Patrick Wong in September that year.
Kapris said that following his return from Singapore that he was taken to Penthouse by Alphie where he met up with Mr Marus.
“I know him (Marus) from Lakiemata as we both did time there.
“At the club, we had drinks and it was while there that Alphone told Francis that ‘William was one of the men who carried out the operations in funding some of you to win the election’,” he said. Kapris said he had travelled to Lae then back to Port Moresby when he was apprehend by police. It was when he was taken to three mile to seek medical treatment when he escaped and made his way straight to Mr Lee at Hohola with the urgent request that he be sent out of country because of the security risks.
“When I spoke to Lee he said the proceeds from the Gold had been invested into funding the elections of Mr Marus, Tony Aimo and Patrick Pruaitch and he should not panic but remain calm. “I was told things would be organised for me to go to Switzerland,” he said.
Kapris said because he could not hang around in Port Moresby he was given K100,000 which he used to travel back to Kimbe with instructions to lay low”.
He says it was in June of 2008 that he received a phone call with the advice he was to travel from Kimbe to Lae then on to Madang as there would be another major operation this time at the Madang BSP.
He said K20,000 was put into his sisters account whom he named as Susan Minape, adding he could prove this transaction.
Kapris told the court that again with the help of staff members, police and funding from Port Moresby this robbery was a success.
