"He can't be handed over to us until those medical issues are cleared and resolved,'' he says.
A man who lived with Morehu-Barlow, also known as Joel, in Teneriffe, Brisbane, suspected something dodgy was going on in 2007.
"He rented the apartment that we were in. He advertised for a flatmate online and I went through this rigorous interview process. He seemed to be attracted to my family connections so he said yes, I could live there," he told the Herald yesterday.
Morehu-Barlow was very interested in the fact the man had a relative working overseas in a diplomatic post. "His father was apparently this royal King of Tahiti or something. I always believed it until this weekend.
"He also said he'd lived in Paris and owned an apartment there. I think he liked the prestige ... He was a shameless name-dropper."
He began to suspect Morehu-Barlow was up to no good when he charged a washing machine repair to Queensland Health. "I remember it because it was really odd.
"He seemed to have a lot of corporate taxi vouchers as well that he used for social functions."
He said Morehu-Barlow liked all things expensive.
"He would often go down to Louis Vuitton and spend up. Apparently he had a family trust that was from the royal connections ... Just before I moved out he'd just bought a Porsche.
"He also had a lot of dinner parties and he bought a lot of alcohol. He liked expensive furniture. He was generous to [friends] he saw as glamorous, or who he could name-drop in social circles."
In 2007 Morehu-Barlow told his flatmates he had to return to New Zealand as his brother had committed suicide. The man believed Morehu-Barlow was deeply affected by that.
He believed Morehu-Barlow was a "good guy" and although he was angry he'd been sucked in by his lies, he also felt sorry for him.
Colleagues raised the alarm about Morehu-Barlow a year ago, but an internal investigation could not substantiate their complaint.
The Auditor-General failed to detect the fraud - said to be the biggest in the public sector in Queensland - two years running.
Last Thursday, an A$11 million ($14.5 million) hole in accounts was noticed by a departmental officer, who alerted police. Morehu-Barlow had been at work that day, but did not appear on Friday.
"It's very dishonest but I think ... he's a good person," the flatmate said. "I think he made a lot of things up and it just got too deep."
FRAUD ARREST
* Hohepa Morehu-Barlow has been arrested over $21 million missing from Queensland Health.
* He is accused of siphoning off funds destined for charities including the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
* Friends believed he was Tahitian royalty.
* The fraud is thought to be the biggest in the public sector in Queensland.
