SFO assists in $18m Fiji fraud case

Four men have been charged by Fiji police over an alleged $F20 million ($18 million) scam in the wake of investigations by New Zealand's Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

The men have been bailed and their case adjourned to later this month.

Sakiusa Bole, a Fiji Ministry of Agriculture officer, was charged with falsification of accounts and will appear in a Suva court on May 19, the Fiji Times newspaper reported.

Three other men charged with official corruption - Pita Alifereti, company director for Repina Holdings Ltd, and Josefa Tapele and Epeli Kete, both of the Ministry of Agriculture - will appear on May 26. They have not yet entered pleas to the charges.

Prosecutors alleged the State was defrauded with items bought at three to four times their normal price when the interim government was in office.

The current investigating team took over the case after Fiji's Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes changed the officers last year to speed up investigations which started three years ago.

Police recovered piles of documents from hardware stores where the Agriculture Ministry always bought farming equipment and studied them with the assistance of NZ's Serious Fraud Squad.

Two officers from the SFO fraud unit arrived in Fiji last October to help with investigations into the "Agriculture Scam", Fiji police spokesman Mesake Koroi said at the time.

The two SFO staff worked closely with a Fiji police team led by Inspector Ponsami Chetty.

- NZPA