Bank discloses evidence of payment on Somare fraud case in Singapore.

by PNG ECHO

SIR Michael Somare claims he has never received illegal payments, responding to a Singaporean newspaper report about the former prime minister involving in a fraud and scam deal with a couple while he was the then Prime Minister. But documents below indicate strong evidence that he has been receiving payments.

On the 16th August 2010, the then Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Sir Michael Somare, received the sum of $US280,000,000 at the Scotts mall branch of the standard Charted Bank in Singapore drawn on the account of MS Quetstone Off shore Limited (Quetzstone).

Then on the 1st September 2010, Somare received a further $US 280,000 into the same personal bank account.

Finally on the 12th November 2010, he also received a further sum of $US 224,000 from the same drawer into his personal bank account in Singapore.

Each of these annexes have the full tracing details endorsed by the bank on the copies produced here (below), so there can be no denying the funds received by him.

"I am told Sir Michael spent some of the money paying the builder of his Wewak residence and the rest has been frozen in this account (I believe the residual is around $300,000)
The enormity of this crime cannot be underestimated. I am reliably informed that it is the most "white collar" crime on the statute books and carries a term of imprisonment of 25 years in prison.

Furthermore, under oath before Leadership Tribunal in 2010, so are was required to disclose all of his bank accounts and other assets. He failed to disclose the Singapore bank account, and consequently perjured himself.

This bank account was not disclosed in his leadership returns for 2010 or any other year subsequently,which constitutes a serial breaching of the Leadership code.

Somare also failed to disclose this income to the Internal Revenue Commission,which is a fraud.

A payment into Somare's personal bank account on Sept, 2010.

Payment on 12th November, 2010.

The 3rd payment on the 16th August, 2010.

VIDEO: PNG corruption on how officials are laundering taxpayers money. Almost half of the country's annual budget K7-billion is lost in corruption.

Below is a report from Radio New Zealand 
THERE are hopes in Papua New Guinea that Australia will follow Singapore and co-operate with efforts to stem the laundering of proceeds from corruption in PNG.
A Singapore court last week jailed a couple for laundering $US3.6 million of funds, intended for setting up community colleges in PNG.

The court established that in 2010 almost $US800,000 of the funds was deposited in the bank account of Sir Michael Somare, PNG's prime minister at the time.

The chairman of PNG's anti-corruption agency Taskforce Sweep, Sam Koim, said his team had been working with Singaporean authorities on the case.

He said co-operation from other jurisdictions could be critical to successful prosecution of corruption.

Mr Koim said many of PNG's white collar criminals tended to buy property, or hold their money, in Australia.

"I would not want to think that there is no suspicious transaction that has not been detected by AUSTRAC (Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre). I believe there are many and it's up to Australia to have the political will to actually take a step like what Singapore did."

Mr Koim said the conclusion of the Singapore case would assist his team in finalising its own line of investigations on the matter.

Sir Michael has apologised for the shame caused to his country, however in a statement said that at no time in his political career had he received bribes.