“Mr Speaker, it appears to be forged, it appears to be forged.” – PM Peter O’Neill
By SONJA BARRY RAMOI
“Mr Speaker, it appears to be forged, it appears to be forged. The signature on face value that I see now is certainly not mine, certainly not mine Mr Speaker. And the letter the way it is structured is certainly not the way I write letters or my staff write letters, Mr Speaker. The letter is addressed to the Treasurer and then it is ‘attentioned’ to Mr Gibson and then it says ‘Dear Sir’; Mr Speaker it said ‘Dear Sir’. Every time my letter comes out from my office it’s other ‘My Dear Minister’ or ‘My Dear Secretary’,” the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Hon. Peter O’Neill informed the Speaker Hon. Theo Zurenuoc at the end of May this year.
The purportedly forged letter dated 24, January 2012 bearing the official emblem and the Prime Ministers signature was addressed to the Minister for Finance and Treasury, Hon Don Polye. The stamp in the top right hand corner of the allegedly forged letter reads ‘Prime Minister’ and indicates that it was ‘Received’ by the Minister’s office three days later. The letter purportedly signed by Peter O’Neill reads:
“Despite appropriate Ministerial and political directives, it appears Paraka Lawyers outstanding legal fees have not been cleared fully. Whilst I understand that these were due to budgetary constraints last year, the Department of Finance should not delay any further in settling this outstanding liability. Paraka Lawyers is a large national Legal firm that has huge operational expenses to settle and operate. It is therefore my direction that appropriate warrants be released out of the 2012 Budgetary allocations for Court Orders/legal fees and have all the outstanding legal bills owed to Paraka Lawyers settled forthwith. You are therefore directed to liaise with the Treasury Secretary and have this directive implemented forthwith without any delay.”
The Opposition Leader Hon. Belden Namah had tabled the letter on the floor of parliament on the 23rd of May 2013 after he was shouted down by certain MP’s when he tried to read the letter out loud ‘so everyone can understand’. That was the session, you may recall, when Peter O’Neill told Belden Namah ‘Don’t you worry, I will do you in slowly’. The previous week - on May 17th 2013 - after the Speaker initially prevented the Opposition Leader from asking questions about the ‘staggering’ 71.8 million Kina in public funds allegedly paid fraudulently to Paul Paraka Lawyers - Belden Namah advised during a press conference: “let me just go back in history in time, when I was the Deputy Prime Minister and Forest Minister in the government - O’Neill Namah government - I had a similar press conference on this issue on Paul Paraka lawyers. It was never reported on media, either in the EMTV, Kundu or Post and National.”
During Talkback on FM100 (22/5/13), the Deputy Opposition Leader Sam Basil also advised that the matter had been brought to the attention of the Prime Minister and the media – in 2012 prior to the elections. “We talked about half of the 71 million – 30 million of the 71 million. We brought it to light. We said look there is illegal payments going on here. Somebody do something. Prime Minister do something. And we expect the media to throw the light over it during that press conference. To our surprise none of the media outlet ran the story. Even the Prime Minister knew that we had raised the concern regarding those payments; he did nothing about it and if the press would have done something about it and publicized that press conference we would have saved forty million now.”
In a statement dated 13 September 2013, authorized for release by Task Force Sweep Chairman Sam Koim, the public was advised that “Investigations by Task-Force Sweep reveal that officers at Finance Department continued to pay Paul Paraka Lawyers since March 2007 in total defiance of two Supreme Court Stay Orders preventing any payment to that law firm. They did so by paying monies into eight (8) different law firms and a nominee company of Mr Paraka. Department of Finance even paid service providers of Paraka Lawyers directly on account of Paraka Lawyers. From the evidence available to Task-Force Sweep, the total amount paid since March 2007 has gone up to almost K300 million. That amount excludes payments made to this law firm during the tenure of their brief out and prior to the Supreme Court stay orders. Many more heads will roll in the coming days. Meanwhile, Mr Paul Paraka has gone into hiding. He was invited by the Police Fraud Squad to come for an interview since more than a week ago but did not turn up. Anybody has information to his whereabouts; please report to the National Fraud Squad.”
On Friday the 6th of September - one week prior to the release of Task Force Sweeps public statement - Paul Paraka reportedly ran away by jumping over his ‘residence fence’ leaving his ‘4 wives’ behind after his ‘bank accounts were closed’; and went into “hiding”. According to anonymous informants Paul Paraka was seen by an “eyewitness” on Friday (20/9/13) and Saturday (21/9/13) outside the house of Judge Kariko where he reportedly “tried desperately to get Judge Kariko to issue a restraining order Friday night” and “he was seen parked outside the judges house till 11 pm, Judge refuse to entertainment (sic) him, he tried again this morning and Judge told him to come to court on Monday like everybody else.”
Was Paul Paraka so desperate that he actually came out of “hiding” to try and enlist the support of Judge Kariko who has a reputation that “he can’t be bought” for any price? Does Paul Paraka honestly believe that he can succeed in preventing being detained and questioned and charged by obtaining a “restraining order” against Task Force Sweep and the Fraud Squad? If he was granted such a restraining order wouldn’t this be an unholy precedent for all alleged white collar crooks – despite the alleged evidence stacked against them - to run to the courts or to the private residences of Judges to get a restraining order or an injunction and therefore in the eyes of the public be perceived to be perverting or preventing the course of justice? Surely this is not legally possible?
In a letter dated July 21, 2006 Paul Paraka reportedly claimed that his law firm saved the State 1.3 billion Kina so what is he worried about? Tell the truth Paul and shame the Devil. Has the Forensic Division of the Fraud Squad dusted the purportedly forged letter for finger-prints yet? Who got what from the “almost K300 million”?
The purportedly forged letter dated 24, January 2012 bearing the official emblem and the Prime Ministers signature was addressed to the Minister for Finance and Treasury, Hon Don Polye. The stamp in the top right hand corner of the allegedly forged letter reads ‘Prime Minister’ and indicates that it was ‘Received’ by the Minister’s office three days later. The letter purportedly signed by Peter O’Neill reads:
“Despite appropriate Ministerial and political directives, it appears Paraka Lawyers outstanding legal fees have not been cleared fully. Whilst I understand that these were due to budgetary constraints last year, the Department of Finance should not delay any further in settling this outstanding liability. Paraka Lawyers is a large national Legal firm that has huge operational expenses to settle and operate. It is therefore my direction that appropriate warrants be released out of the 2012 Budgetary allocations for Court Orders/legal fees and have all the outstanding legal bills owed to Paraka Lawyers settled forthwith. You are therefore directed to liaise with the Treasury Secretary and have this directive implemented forthwith without any delay.”
The Opposition Leader Hon. Belden Namah had tabled the letter on the floor of parliament on the 23rd of May 2013 after he was shouted down by certain MP’s when he tried to read the letter out loud ‘so everyone can understand’. That was the session, you may recall, when Peter O’Neill told Belden Namah ‘Don’t you worry, I will do you in slowly’. The previous week - on May 17th 2013 - after the Speaker initially prevented the Opposition Leader from asking questions about the ‘staggering’ 71.8 million Kina in public funds allegedly paid fraudulently to Paul Paraka Lawyers - Belden Namah advised during a press conference: “let me just go back in history in time, when I was the Deputy Prime Minister and Forest Minister in the government - O’Neill Namah government - I had a similar press conference on this issue on Paul Paraka lawyers. It was never reported on media, either in the EMTV, Kundu or Post and National.”
During Talkback on FM100 (22/5/13), the Deputy Opposition Leader Sam Basil also advised that the matter had been brought to the attention of the Prime Minister and the media – in 2012 prior to the elections. “We talked about half of the 71 million – 30 million of the 71 million. We brought it to light. We said look there is illegal payments going on here. Somebody do something. Prime Minister do something. And we expect the media to throw the light over it during that press conference. To our surprise none of the media outlet ran the story. Even the Prime Minister knew that we had raised the concern regarding those payments; he did nothing about it and if the press would have done something about it and publicized that press conference we would have saved forty million now.”
In a statement dated 13 September 2013, authorized for release by Task Force Sweep Chairman Sam Koim, the public was advised that “Investigations by Task-Force Sweep reveal that officers at Finance Department continued to pay Paul Paraka Lawyers since March 2007 in total defiance of two Supreme Court Stay Orders preventing any payment to that law firm. They did so by paying monies into eight (8) different law firms and a nominee company of Mr Paraka. Department of Finance even paid service providers of Paraka Lawyers directly on account of Paraka Lawyers. From the evidence available to Task-Force Sweep, the total amount paid since March 2007 has gone up to almost K300 million. That amount excludes payments made to this law firm during the tenure of their brief out and prior to the Supreme Court stay orders. Many more heads will roll in the coming days. Meanwhile, Mr Paul Paraka has gone into hiding. He was invited by the Police Fraud Squad to come for an interview since more than a week ago but did not turn up. Anybody has information to his whereabouts; please report to the National Fraud Squad.”
On Friday the 6th of September - one week prior to the release of Task Force Sweeps public statement - Paul Paraka reportedly ran away by jumping over his ‘residence fence’ leaving his ‘4 wives’ behind after his ‘bank accounts were closed’; and went into “hiding”. According to anonymous informants Paul Paraka was seen by an “eyewitness” on Friday (20/9/13) and Saturday (21/9/13) outside the house of Judge Kariko where he reportedly “tried desperately to get Judge Kariko to issue a restraining order Friday night” and “he was seen parked outside the judges house till 11 pm, Judge refuse to entertainment (sic) him, he tried again this morning and Judge told him to come to court on Monday like everybody else.”
Was Paul Paraka so desperate that he actually came out of “hiding” to try and enlist the support of Judge Kariko who has a reputation that “he can’t be bought” for any price? Does Paul Paraka honestly believe that he can succeed in preventing being detained and questioned and charged by obtaining a “restraining order” against Task Force Sweep and the Fraud Squad? If he was granted such a restraining order wouldn’t this be an unholy precedent for all alleged white collar crooks – despite the alleged evidence stacked against them - to run to the courts or to the private residences of Judges to get a restraining order or an injunction and therefore in the eyes of the public be perceived to be perverting or preventing the course of justice? Surely this is not legally possible?
In a letter dated July 21, 2006 Paul Paraka reportedly claimed that his law firm saved the State 1.3 billion Kina so what is he worried about? Tell the truth Paul and shame the Devil. Has the Forensic Division of the Fraud Squad dusted the purportedly forged letter for finger-prints yet? Who got what from the “almost K300 million”?
