A Web of Deceit

How Fijian Authorities busted one of Fiji’s biggest financial crimes

by Dionisia Tabureguci

Swindled! Turtle Island Fiji owner Richard 

Evanson lost close to F$1m to corrupt workers. 

PHOTO: luxurytravelmagazine.com

To listen to Fijian authorities relate how they unravelled the web of deceit that became one of Fiji’s biggest—if not the biggest—money laundering cases in recent times is almost like watching a crime movie.

For a moment, you wouldn’t believe this was happening in Fiji. 

It’s the story about how Turtle Island Fiji, owned by American entrepreneur Richard Evanson and dubbed as one of the world’s most private and exclusive eco-cultural island resorts, fell victim to corrupt workers.

The conspiracy—played out over close to two years before formal police investigations into it began—is rooted in the use of friends and relatives and their bank accounts to siphon off close to F$1 million from the resort’s account, money used to buy a life of luxury and indulgence. When police and state prosecutors finally moved in to confiscate assets, they were only able to seize a house in Nadi, bought for over $100,000 cash, and six vehicles.

At today’s market value, these assets are worth around $200,000, said state prosecutor Nancy Tikoisuva. 

The rest—over $700,000—remains unaccounted for.

84 cheques

Despite the extensive network of people involved in the fraud, the prosecution was able only to rope in six, and their sinister undertakings unfolded at the Lautoka High Court like a drama from a television crime show.

When in April this year, the six accused—Anand Kumar Prasad, Reenal Praneel Chandra, Reenal Rajneil Chandra, Deo Narayan Singh, Shirley Shangeeta Chand and Atishma Kirti Singh—were sentenced, they had already robbed SPOR Fiji Ltd, which trades as Turtle Island, of $936, 957. Of that, $840,000 were stolen through 84 cheques forged by the 1st accused, Anand Kumar Prasad.

Playing a leading role too in the deception was Prasad’s sister, 5th accused Shirley Sangeeta Prasad, a prime banker at one of the big commercial banks. Court documents relating to the sentencing of the six accused revealed that Shirley Sangeeta, being a prime banker, knew Evanson well and when Evanson found himself without an accountant in May 2006, he turned to her for a personal recommendation.

She recommended her brother, the 1st accused who has had, according to court documents, eight previous convictions for forgery, larceny and obtaining money on forged documents and had served time in prison for them. Evanson, who was the state’s key witness in this trial, told the court that he trusted the 5th accused because she had given him good banking service over the years.

“Mr Evanson says that he seemed to be performing his duties well but came to know at a later stage that from very early on in his employment, he was forging documents and cheques.” Evanson’s subsequent audit showed that Kumar “had forged a total of 84 cheques amounting to a sum of $840,000”.

Betrayal

“On 46 of those cheques, he wrote his own name as payee and on others, he wrote names of family members and friends. Because Mr Evanson trusted his staff so much, he never scrutinised cheques less than $10,000. In that way, the 1st accused was able to write so many cheques for slightly less than $10,000, forge Evanson’s signature and bank them under two different accounts in his name and into the accounts of his friends, the 2nd and 3rd accused (brothers Renal Praneel Chandra and Reenal Rajneil Chandra). In some instances, the 1st accused would change the name of the payee on a cheque for a sum over $10,000, sometimes even adding figures to the sum written, then forge the initials of Evanson near the alteration.

“Many of these cheques were made payable to the 4th accused’s (Deo Narayan) company ‘Shahill and Shohill Grocery and Machinery Repairs Ltd’. The 4th accused did piecemeal vehicle repair. Throughout this  time, the 5th accused (Shirley Sangeeta), the 1st accused’s sister, worked in the bank, with every capability of facilitating the processing of the cheques, although there is no evidence that she did that.

Picturesque Turtle Island.     PHOTO: turtlefiji.com

“There was evidence, however, that she was involved personally in uplifting stop orders on cheques that Mr Evanson’s company SPOR Fiji Ltd, had earlier stopped and there was no authority for her to do that. In addition to that, she was instrumental in processing a forged fax that was sent to the bank to remit the sum of $36,000 to Shahill and Shohill. She happened to be ‘on the spot’ when the fax arrived and made sure it was actioned without delay. As soon as it was processed and after the 5th accused made a phone call, the monies were uplifted.”

Jailtime

Justice Paul Madigan sentenced the 1st accused Anand Kumar Prasad, “the main player in this conspiracy”, to six years with a minimum term of five years while his sister, who, “from the very beginning betrayed the trust of her bank employer and one of its biggest clients by recommending her brother to Mr Evanson as a suitable person to be the Turtle Island accountant” was sentenced to four and a half years with a minimum term of three years.  The second and third accused, who are brothers and friends of the 1st accused, each got two years with a minimum term of 18 months for facilitating the fraud by providing their bank accounts for the 1st accused to use to deposit the forged cheques."  The fourth accused was sentenced for four years with a minimum term of three years for playing "a rather major role in this conspiracy by providing his business bank account for the  1st accused to use."

“A lot of the cheques that were altered were made payable to ‘Shahill and Shohill Grocery and Machinery Repairs Ltd’, which was the account the fourth accused (Deo Narayan) and his wife, the 6th accused (Atishma Kirti Singh) used in the running of a small shop and repair yard they had in Sigatoka,” Justice Madigan said in his ruling.

“The 4th accused had cheques deposited into 2 personal accounts in addition. He was also, by his company account, the recipient of funds transferred by way of a forged fax sent to the 5th accused’s bank. He later was ‘rewarded’ with a gift of a vehicle.”

His wife, the 6th accused, was delievered a two-year sentence suspended for two years because of her “relatively minor role in the conspiracy.”

Model case

All those facts came before Fiji’s court system because of the efficient cooperation at ground level, which led first to the detection of the crime through the financial system, its investigation by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Fiji Police, and then the successful prosecution by state prosecutors. The case was highlighted at the FIU’s 3rd Anti-Money Laundering conference held in Suva last month, as a demonstration of how such collaboration among the relevant agencies would continue to ensure that Fiji’s financial system is not used by criminals to hide their so-called ‘dirty money’, or their gains from illegal activities.

Razim Buksh: Fiji FIU gathered intelligence 

within 24 hours.   PHOTO: Dionisia Tabureguci

“This is the biggest money laundering case in the history of Fiji and the biggest that we’ve handled which was very successful and this is due to the team work of all the agencies involved, including the commercial banks who gave us tremendous support in terms of providing the necessary information to the FIU,” Razim Buksh, head of Fiji’s FIU told Fiji Business.

“It is significant for Fiji because it talks about all aspects of the money laundering system, in particular the reporting of Suspicious Transactions Reports (STRs) under the Financial Transactions Reporting Act; the ability and capacity of the FIU to quickly develop intelligence and quickly share this information with the law enforcement agency. “The case also talks about the ability of the fraud investigators within the police force. Because of the complexities involved in the case, they must be capable enough to analyse huge volumes of information and financial data.

“It also tested the ability of the Director of Public Prosecution, its entire team, on whether they could test new grounds, whether they were able to carry out the civil forfeiture provisions under the law and I think when you look at the case in totality, you can comfortably say that this is a very positive outcome and a very significant achievement for Fiji,” Buksh added.

How they were caught

In this case, loosely referred to as the “Turtle Island case”, the perpetrators made sure the forged cheques were mostly for amounts less than $10,000 to avoid detection not just by Evanson but also by the FIU, as all financial transactions in Fiji of $10,000 or more must be reported to the FIU. The twist of irony was that one of their transactions emerged nevertheless in FIU’s radar as an STR, which then led to the busting of the scheme.

In just 24 hours from this first STR, the FIU, empowered under the Financial Transactions Reporting Act to get personal bank account details and transaction records, had gathered enough information to confirm the criminal nature of the case. 

“It was reported as an STR and our analysis of the transaction and the bank account details found that these transactions were below the reportable threshold. So it was during the course of our analysis and the request for further information and our intelligence development process that we found that this whole scheme was based on under $10,000 transactions,” said Buksh. “And you would have seen that one of the persons charged was a bank officer and she knew of the reportable threshold and therefore it was a deliberate attempt by the perpetrators to do those transactions so that they are not within the FIU’s radar. But they were picked because we went back to the commercial banks and we found that these were transactions conducted at not just one bank but at many other commercial banks and a large percentage of these transactions were $9.800, $9,300…all below $10,000 which is the reportable threshold under the FTR Act,” Buksh added.

Little surprise that the case also went on to win international recognition from the Egmont Group of FIUs of the World, an organization of FIUs from 127 countries including Fiji, who classed it as one of the top three cases of Money Laundering in the world.

Dirty Money

FIU gathered intelligence in a matter of 24 hours. Police investigation was to take a course of almost a year before the thieves were arrested and charged, putting to test the quality of police investigation as well as the skills of state prosecutors to handle such a complex case. For the state prosecutors, this was a landmark case because it involved the largest civil forfeiture ever done in Fiji, where a lot of property has been forfeited to the state.

Their ability to execute this civil forfeiture was indicative of the skills these lawyers are now equipped with, which means that offenders, when they get out of prison, will not be able to enjoy money or assets that they’ve stolen.

“The value right now if we sell those properties would be over $200,000,” DPP lawyer and prosecutor in the case Nancy Tikoisuva told Fiji Business.

“We were able to seize six vehicles and one house. One of these vehicles was transferred to the main culprit’s mother (the 1st accused’s mother) and we were able to show that the mother didn’t have the capacity to have paid for this car in cash because she was just staying home. At the same time, the house was being bought in her name for cash as well. “We were able to establish that she couldn’t have got this money, that the money had to come from her son and we were able to establish from the documents and through witness’ statements that it was him who did the purchasing even though it was in his mother’s name,” Tikoisuva said.

Forged Cheques...a picture of a forged cheque in the Turtle Island case.
PHOTO:  FIU presentation at 2011 Anti-Money Laundering
Workshop in Suva, Fiji.

All properties seized, said Tikoisuva, will have to be sold off and the money from that sale go into the Forfeited Assets Fund, which was established under the Proceeds of Crime Act. 

Turtle Island did not lay any claim during the civil proceedings while a claim filed by one of the perpetrators, who claimed that legitimate money was spent by him on one of the cars, was quashed by the court.

Liquidation would see the Forfeited Assets Fund with some $200,000, which will be used for law enforcement work. While the rest, some $700,000, remain untraceable, this case may also be remembered as one of the very first to test the provisions for civil forfeiture, which was only introduced in Fiji in 2005 as an amendment to the Proceeds of Crime Act 1997.

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This article was published as the cover story of the Fiji Business section of the monthly Islands Business Magazine as: "A Web of Deceit". It appeared on pages 1-5 of Fiji Business December 2011 edition.

Alphaeus Zobule takes God’s word to Luqa

by Dionisia Tabureguci

Dr Zobule on graduation 2008

IT IS OFTEN said that man may make his plans but God has the last word.  For Alphaeus Graham Zobule, bearer of God’s Word to his Luqa-speaking people in Solomon Islands, that was exactly what happened.   His ambition and initial path of education led him to the fields of science and engineering.  The Lord took him to Texas.

“I went to Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas, to do a Masters in Biblical Studies and Linguistics (1994-1996), spending time also at Jerusalem University College (Israel) as well as Hebrew University (Israel) to learn more about the Hebrew language as well as the Bible land,” said Zobule from his home in Honiara.

“After translating the New Testament into my language, I did another Masters at Trinity Theological College in Singapore and then went to the USA to do a PhD in Biblical Studies which I have just recently completed.” 

Zobule, who in June this year was awarded Doctor of Philosophy at the Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in the US, is now the first Pacific Islander to be a Translation Consultant for United Bible Societies (UBS), an organization involved in the translation and distribution of Bibles worldwide.

UBS headquarters in the Pacific is in Fiji. 

Some time back, Dr Zobule had made an outstanding contribution to the work of Christianity in the region.  He translated the New Testament portion of the Bible into his mother tongue Luqa (pron: Lungga), becoming the first person ever to do that and to put the orally spoken language into a written form. His feat received national attention in the US and a story about his work featured in the Washington Post.

When we spoke with Zobule, he was back home in Solomon Islands working on several translation projects for United Bible Societies.

“I am from a small island of Ranonga in the Western Province in the Solomon Islands,” the soft-spoken man of God explained. “In the last century, the Methodist missionaries were active in that part of the country, and the predominant church in the area is United Church in Solomon Islands, a church that has its roots in Wesleyan Methodism."

"I grew up in a tiny village where the idea of going to school was very remote in the minds of the villagers.  There was no school around, and nobody seemed to know, much less cared, about sending their children to school. My parents, however, thought that education was such a good thing, so they decided to send my sisters and me to school.  That meant they had to send us to villages far away where we would be away for 4 to 5 months at a time, attending school.  As long as I can remember, my father would give me this daily sermon, encouragement, advice: ‘My son, go to school.’  I was tired of hearing those words, but my father was never tired of saying them.  Those words made an impact in my thinking,” Zobule added.

His father’s wisdom paid off. Zobule graduated to high school, moving on to Goldie College and King George VI School in Honiara and then to Fiji to attend the University of the South Pacific, where he studied science in 1987 and 1988.

“I must have done well enough to merit a scholarship, and so the US Embassy in Fiji offered me a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the US. I accepted it and so I went to University of Kansas, USA (1988-1991) and graduated with a Bachelor of Science and Mechanical Engineering.  I returned to the Solomon Islands in 1991 and after spending 1993 and part of 1994 as a Math lecturer at the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education, I decided it was time to focus my time in studying linguistics and Biblical studies and to devote my time to translating the Bible into my language.”

That change of career was a defining moment and the deeper Zobule delved into his Bible studies, the more he found himself drawn to translation work.

“Doing Bible studies was something I wanted to do for personal benefit because that was where my interest lay.  The idea of getting involved in translation work came later on,” said Zobule. 

So he set about studying the ‘Bible Languages’, or the languages in which manuscripts that contributed to today’s English Bible as we know it, were written in. These included Greek (New Testament), Hebrew and Aramaic (Old Testament).  A couple of ancient languages like Syriac also had to be learnt in order for one to delve the depths of those ancient scrolls.  In his first year at Bible Studies, Zobule began translating the New Testament from its source language (Greek) into his Luqa language and naturally, this work progressed to form the basis of his thesis.

But it was not an easy task. 

“Translating is a very difficult work,” explained Zobule. “Translating from a source language (Greek for NT, Hebrew and Aramaic for OT) into a target language (like Luqa) is always a challenge.  The two languages are different and how they conceptualise meanings are not necessarily the same.  This makes translation work a challenge."

Added to the challenge was that Luqa, until then, had no organised written form and Zobule had to start from scratch.  As a result, Zobule became the first person to organise the Luqa grammar and to actually put the language down into a written form.

“Luqa is a small language group, spoken by about 5,000 to 6,000 people,” he said.  “Before the New Testament I translated came out, there was nothing written in the language.  People wrote letters to other family members but there was not a consistent way of writing it nor was there any agreement of what a word or phrase was.  Everybody wrote as they felt fit! 

The work I have done has helped people to understand their language better.  Perhaps the biggest thing that I myself am amazed about is that when I started focusing on Luqa as a language and writing its grammar, the Luqa people themselves were so surprised that Luqa actually had a grammar. They could not believe it!  The work I have done therefore has done more to change the mentality of the people and their attitude towards their own language, Luqa.  They are now excited about learning to read it and write.  We have a language school now being run to teach people to read, study and write the language.”

An important result of this work is that the Luqa speaking people of Solomon Islands now have the Bible in their own language instead of having to deal with another language Roviana, which missionaries had used to deliver the Good News.

“When the missionaries first came to the Western Province in around 1900s, there were so many languages that they found it difficult to have to learn them all.  So what they did was teach their pastors the Roviana language, which was one of the bigger languages that most people spoke, and this was the language used to spread the Word.  But now, the Roviana language is no longer being used and younger people, my generation, no longer understand it so we have difficulties with it. But everyone speaks Luqa so it is a more relevant language to use."

There is also an inspiring, life altering result to this translation work and rediscovery of mother tongue for Zobule.

“People were so used to hearing and reading the Bible in English but when you start to read and hear the Good News in your own language, it brings in a totally new perspective.  Because language ties in with your identity, reading and hearing the Bible in your language makes a big impact and you begin to gain a deeper understanding of the Bible,” he said.

And for the Luqa speaking people back home in the village, hearing God’s Word in their own language brings a familiarity that they never knew before, as Zobule discovered.

“When the New Testament I translated came out, the people were so excited.  They say: ‘Now God speaks Luqa; God is no longer a foreign God.  He is our God.’ Such comments always inspire me.  I know that the people understand what is written in their own language,” Zobule said.

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NOTE: This is the full text of an article published in the Islands Business Magazine as: "From Science to Bible Translation"; p.43, September 2008 edition.

NCDs: Fiji's Silent Killers

Fiji people are not eating enough fruits and vegetables

By Dionisia Tabureguci

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are casting deadly shadows on Fiji’s population; so much so that there is no shortage of horrifying stories about how these “silent killers” are preying on our working population and our children.

Put simply, they cause 82 percent of deaths in the country each year. The goriness is in the details. They are, for example, killing us early and leaving our children fatherless and motherless too early in life. 

National statistics provided by the Ministry of Health (MOH) show the number of deaths each year in Fiji begins to climb sharply at 35 years old.  When the numbers of people dying each year are classified by age, most deaths are happening between 35 and 59 years, mostly concentrated in the ages between 45 and 49 years—not only are these working ages, they are also parenting ages.

“Most people in Africa are motherless or fatherless because of HIV and AIDS,” said Dr Isimeli Tukana, the health ministry’s national adviser on NCDs. He spoke exclusively to FIJI BUSINESS on what has become, for the ministry, an alarming morbidity and mortality scenario for the nation. “In Fiji, it’s a different story. Most become fatherless or motherless because somebody died early from NCDs.

War

There is a national battle being waged against NCDs—not just because they are taking us early to the grave but also because there are indications that we may, although unintentionally, be delivering a population of sick children into the future; children who are fat, lethargic, who do little physical activities, thrive on junk foods and who live glued-to-the-TV lifestyle that, if not reversed, will kill them earlier than the age NCDs are killing Fiji’s adult population now.

But it’s a difficult battle at the outset as it boils down to the Ministry of Health loading an armoury to fight what really is up to the individual to counter. Simply because NCDs are lifestyle diseases, inflicted upon oneself after years of living an unhealthy lifestyle of smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, improper and unbalanced diet, and lack of exercise or physical activities. 

“NCDs in the Fiji context are five diseases: diabetes; heart diseases, including stroke, hypertension and high blood pressure; cancer; mental diseases; and accidents and injuries,” explained Dr Tukana. “We don’t know what cause most NCDs in Fiji but we know the four risk factors that contribute towards people getting an NCD; they are smoking, eating, alcohol and physical activities. That is standard worldwide." 

In fact, NCDs have penetrated Fiji's society much deeper than the society is aware of. Not only are they blamed for causing up to 80 percent of Fiji's death each year, some 80 percent of Fiji's hospital admissions is attributed to one of the NCDs, said Tukana.  "And even our disabilities—those who are disabled, most of them are caused by an NCD. The disabilities are they get blind, diabetes or hypertension or they get their foot amputated because of complications. They have kidney problems and they get disabled. Some have heart attacks, some have strokes. These are all complications of NCDs. And even with cancers, you get disabled. There’s a significant number of people in Fiji who are disabled because of NCD complications," Tukana added. “So we know that if we can reduce or at least let people know about the four risk factors and how to carefully manage them, their chances of getting an NCD will be much lower.

“But there are some facts of life we have to understand—as we get older, NCDs come nearer to us because of the lifestyle we live now. So really the challenge for us in the scenario of NCDs is to control the risk factors.” This is a fight against one of Fiji's top killers.  And it is one being waged by the health ministry through health campaigns and public awareness, and the government through relevant policies and budgetary support because of the insidious rot that has set in as a result of these diseases. 

Sick, ‘fast-food’ eating adult population

Since the last national survey on NCDs carried out for Fiji, the health ministry has spent thousands of dollars trying to keep these diseases at bay. The survey—known in the medical fraternity as the NCD STEPS Survey because of the many 'steps' involved in it—was a collaboration between the ministry, the World Health Organisation and the Fiji School of Medicine (FSM).

It was carried out in 2002, and although customarily held after every five years, the next STEPS survey for Fiji is due next month. The findings of the 2002 STEPS survey revealed alarming results. They showed a high indulgence of the population in the risk factors and indicated that Fiji had a sick population that was already moving towards NCDs vulnerability. “That survey showed that 36 percent of Fiji’s population smoke and of that, 42 percent smoked on a daily basis,” said Tukana. “That’s a big chunk, and the problem with smoking is the passive smokers—people who don’t smoke but are exposed to it—have four times more chances of getting cancer than those who actually smoke.   “The other big problem was eating. The survey found that only 1.25 percent of our population ate enough fruits and vegetables a day. To take enough fruits and vegetables a day, we are talking about a daily intake of 400 grams of fruits and vegetables. So that begs the question: what are the rest—99 percent of the population—eating?” 

Of the three types of foods—energy giving, health giving and body building—Fiji was having problems with people not eating enough health giving foods, which include fruits and vegetables. The subtle social changes over the years leading up to 2002 had culminated into a population that had made a significant lifestyle shift—towards one that predominantly survived on fast-food. “That’s where Fiji’s population is moving,” said Tukana.   “They eat a lot of fats and oils, foods with a lot of salt and sugar. The medical term for those kinds of foods is ‘high calorie’ where they give a lot of energy which you don’t really need. That actually creates another problem—people get bigger faster. “Compounded with not doing enough physical activities, it makes things worse. So our population has changed—it has moved from a physically active and fresh eating population to a now ‘fast-food-eating-and-glued-to-TV-and-games’ one, starting from our children.”  
The 2002 survey found that out of Fiji’s population aged between 15-64 years, 29.9 percent was overweight and an additional 18 percent was obese. The evidence collected indicated that most people were getting obese by the time they reached their thirties, which implied, according to the survey report, that the younger population in Fiji was gaining weight faster. 

Fat, unhealthy children

If the adults had not been aware of or least bothered by the dangerous path they were treading, the cost, it would seem, is a very steep tax on tomorrow's workforce. In a more recent survey done by the Fiji School of Medicine, it could be gauged that Fiji’s high school children—who would have been at primary school level in 2002—turned out to be as ill-aware as their parents of the perilous journeys they were taking.  

The FSM survey found that most of them tended to indulge in eating junk foods, were not doing enough physical activities and were overweight. “It showed that in our younger population, the risk factors are increasing. There are more bigger children who are not physically active. They are eating more junk food and are likely to get suffer from NCDs earlier than us [adults],” said Tukana. Children as young as 15 years old were suffering from stroke, diabetes and obesity, according to the findings of the FSM survey.  

This takes the issue of NCDs to another level, one that sees the health ministry trying to mete out preventative measures for Fiji’s adult population and the younger population as well. Clearly burdened by NCDs, the health ministry in its Strategic Plan 2011-2015, noted: "The growing burden of non-communicable diseases is demonstrated by the NCD STEPS Survey of 2002. This reported a prevalence rate of diabetes at 16 percent and hypertension as 19.1 percent. The report also highlighted that a third of all deaths were due to circulatory diseases. The prematurity of NCD deaths especially is becoming an economic and development issue, as the age of men dying from CVD (Cardiovascular diseases) falls every year." 

Again in its 2009 annual report, the health ministry acknowlegded the "challenge of reducing the burden of NCDs is enormous. CVDs, Diabetes Mellitus and cancer prevalence continue to increase, creating more threat to the limited resources that we are equipped with. However, our hope is in educating the young people to avoid the 'risk factors' that will lead to the early development of these diseases."  

The annual report said a 2002 study by the World Bank and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community revealed NCDs to account for 38.8 percent of all treatment costs. It may seem like a one-sided affair with a single government arm trying to fend off this ghastly spectre and a population that may not be getting the message despite millions of dollars being poured into creating nationwide awareness. 

That NCDs are lifestyle diseases makes this an uphill battle—people generally ignore the warnings until it’s too late, said Tukana.  And for those who have been diagnosed with it, they are prone to continue to live their unhealthy lifestyles as if accepting that their end is near and ignore medical advice that if they change their eating habits, cut down on smoking, drink less and do more physical activities, they could still live a quality life. 

“It’s a silent killer. We are walking around and we don’t know that we have one of the NCDs. It’s in the lifestyle and it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not like I eat a lot of junk food today and I get sick tomorrow. All that bad habits accumulate and then after 10, 15 years, it shows. If you have a strong family history, then it comes earlier than that,” Tukana said.  “One of our biggest problems during the awareness campaigns is people tend not to heed the warning until they have the disease. That’s probably the way we do things in Fiji—we are more reactive than proactive. But the campaigns are slowly getting through.  We are especially working hard on children, first because it’s a chronic disease—our statistics show that people are dying early, in the early thirties, so they would have been developing the diseases much earlier when they were children. Secondly, 60 percent of Fiji’s population anyway are under 30 years old, so it makes sense for us to move to the youth and children, to create awareness there with the hope that we can change the mindset.” 

Intervention 

Death statistics released by the health ministry in its annual report paint a bleak picture about the health of the nation. Each year, the dying were getting younger, the death toll spiking at between 45 and 49 years old, averaging 400 annually. 

Tukana related an analogy that he often shared with his audience when deliberating on Fiji’s NCD status.  “I always say it’s equivalent to a Boeing 747, carrying its full capacity of 400 people, crashing each year and killing everyone onboard,” Tukana joked. “Because that’s what it is—it’s like, every year, since 1996, one of these Boeing 747s takes off with 400 45-49-year olds, crashes and kills them all.”

It’s relatively more difficult, said Tukana, to change the mindset of adults, despite such glaring evidence, than it is to change the younger population. For now, government intervention through relevant policies is needed in order to control NCDs in the adult population. Tackling NCDs by managing the four risk factors—smoking, eating, alcohol and physical activities—is the best way to go, said Tukana.

“You cannot stop the disease coming to you but you can delay its arrival. Now it’s arriving too early and taking people too early. Only 15 percent of the population are over 50 years old, which tells you that people are dying early. A joke I usually share with civil servants is if we are not careful, we will not get our FNPF (pension),” said Tukana. 

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NOTE: This article was published in the Fiji Business Magazine as: "Fiji's Silent Killers"; pp 3-5, January 2011 edition.  Fiji Business is part of Islands Business Magazine, available in Fiji and to subscribers.

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Kava basics missing

Once a lucrative export crop in the Pacific, kava has declined over the years.

By Dionisia Tabureguci

THE EXPLOSION of the kava exporting industry in the Pacific in the late 1990s in now looking more and more like a one-off stroke of luck for some stakeholders. Efforts may be on going in trying to persuade the Europeans to lift their ban on kava but there are scattered opinions of the success of even reviving that market.

Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and Fiji used to supply grounded kava to countries in Europe that produced kava-containing herbal drugs, sold then for stress relief. In a short while, it had become a bit of a wonder drug until the Germans linked kava to liver damage and banned it in 2001. How it swiftly truncated the soaring kava exporting business in the region is no longer a mystery but reviving the European market is an issue way down the line, said one Vanuatu exporter. Pacific countries exporting kava have much basic work to do.



“Kava export is not going to go anywhere very soon,” said Charlie Long Wah, owner of Kava Store in Vanuatu. He has been in the exporting business now for some 40 years. “The problem is we have no complete analytical informational, value, certification, etc before we talk about exports. The organizations of kava councils in Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa and Tonga should start from the beginning.
Most of the kava that we export everywhere in the world, especially in Vanuatu where we have 80 varieties of kava, we are getting all sorts of rubbish inside. Until we complete and make available all the analytic information on kava, it cannot be commercialised.”

He is promoting another crop, Canarium indicum nuts, from trees that grow wild in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea.
To give this new crop a proper start, Australian scientists with the help of locals like Long Wah, are doing research into post harvest handling and processing of the nuts, known in Vanuatu as Nangai nuts and whose kernels are eaten like peanuts.
“It’s big money,” said Long Wah. “30 bags of nuts value added equals 2700 bags of copra. I am the leading buyer in Vanuatu. I buy at $25,000 a tonne and the price is still going up because we cannot supply the local market.

Compare this with kava and you will see it’s very bad for kava because the cost of bringing the green kava to town has gone up and farmers make little money out of it. In 2000, Vanuatu was drinking about 6000 tonnes of green kava and exporting 1000 tonnes of dry kava. In 2008, we are under 300 tonnes dry and 600 tonnes green. In Port Vila in 2000, we had 1000 kava bar but now we only have 150. At the trend we’re going on, we will soon end up with only 30 kava bar very soon.”

Long Wah’s view on getting the basics together is shared by Vanuatu kava scientist Vincent Lebot, who earlier told Islands Business magazine that the Pacific suffered from a lack of quality standards or control system, which could eventually lead to the demise of the kava industry.
“Everyone is dreaming about exporting but the fact is that the local product is poor and first of all has to be improved,” Lebot said.

“Assuming that European Health Authorities and companies do their homework and pinpoint the exact problem (that led Germany to link kava with liver disease and ban it), which is doubtful, a lot has to be done in Vanuatu where serious difficulties now exist. Traditional knowledge is disappearing and most kava traders and exporters don’t know what they are dealing with. In fact, many of them don’t really care. They don’t drink what they are selling. As a result of the “kava boom” of 1998, farmers have adopted unprofessional attitudes. Nowadays, kava is not as safe as it was in the past because variety selection is favouring yield over quality. The so-called “two-day” varieties are fast growing, resistant to disease and high yielding but they are not suitable for consumption,” said Lebot.

The development of kava quality standards to guide export from the Pacific became a hot issue after the European ban but to date, little been done in this area, said Lebot and Long Wah.
Ever since that ban and last year’s unrelated ban by Australia, kava as an export crop had quietly shifted out of the limelight and kava cultivation had reportedly slowed.

Even a report released last year by the World Health Organisation confirming the safety of kava has failed to wield as much power as Pacific kava councils and exporters had hoped.
“German Health authorities have shifted the goal post,” said To’imoana Takataka, chairman of the Tonga Kava Council. “They are now saying that we should supply enough information regarding the safety of kava. And our scientist colleagues in Germany say yes, they are working towards that goal but so far, we in the Pacific are still not sure what will happen now.”

These days, kava dealers are putting more focus on supplying the local drinking market or the overseas drinking market, which is driven by demand from Pacific communities living overseas.
They are considered easier markets to supply, as properly cleaned and dried kava roots are simply packed and shipped off to destination.
“If the market from Europe opens today, I don’t think we can meet that demand,” said Takataka who also exports through Lita Trading Enterprises.
“It will take several years before we can fulfil that market.”

In Tonga, he said, farmers had been discouraged by the international bans and were planting less kava than before, just enough to supply the domestic beverage market. As a result, Tonga has found it a challenge to supply the growing overseas drinking market.
The story is the same in neighbouring Fiji where exporters like Salesh Raj Kumar of Raj Kava Dealers and Sunil Karan of Ram Karan Kava Dealers are having to import kava from Vanuatu in order to satisfy demand from the domestic market, which they also supply.

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This article was published in the monthly Islands Business Magazine as: "Getting the basics right to save kava." It appeared on page 37 of August issue, 2008.

Anti-money laundering in the Pacific

the head of PALP, Kosi Latu.

by Dionisia Tabureguci

PACIFIC island countries have, at their disposal, a number of donor agencies and institutions that assist them in the establishment or enhancement of their anti – money laundering (AML) and counter terrorist financing (CTF) legislations. One such effort is the Pacific Anti Money Laundering Project (PALP), a combined effort between the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) and the United States State Department.
Islands Business Magazine spoke to Kosi Latu, head of the PIFS-based PALP who spoke about the progress and other aspects of the project.

When was PALP set up and what is its function?
Latu: The Pacific Anti money Laundering Project, or PALP, the acronym that it goes by, is still a very new set-up. It has been going for about 7 months since September last year and is a joint initiative between the Pacific Islands Forum, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the US State Department. The PALP is to run for a period of four years and is funded by the US State Department. PALP is a regional technical assistance and training programme designed to assist Forum countries in establishing and/or enhancing their anti-money laundering (AML) and counter terrorism financing (CTF) regimes to comply with international standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and relevant UN Conventions and Security Council Resolutions.


What has been the progress of PALP’s work so far?
Latu: We have already made some very good on progress on the ground. We have four full time country projects, where we are providing both law enforcement and legal assistance. Those four countries are Tonga, Vanuatu, Palau and the Marshall Islands, which is a new project. We had a request from Fiji, which we’re assessing. We haven’t really done anything in terms of putting into action any measure to implement that project because we are waiting for information to come back from the Fijian authorities before we can move forward. So we have these four projects in those four countries plus a new one from Fiji. In addition to that, we have another four or five countries that we’ve identified, where we could also possibly extend our program. And we have specific areas where we know help can be provided to these countries. So in terms of progress, I think overall, one can say PALP has made a steady and good progress in the last seven months.
The other thing you’ve got to remember is that our Programme is not yet fully staffed. There are four of us, three of whom are professional staff. One, the Legal Mentor, is based in Tonga. The Law Enforcement officer is based in Vanuatu and we’re still trying to recruit a Regulatory Mentor, whose expertise will be used in developing AML/CTF supervisory policies and examination procedures, training programme for examiners/auditors and supervisory authorities in the financial sectors and so forth.
And there’s a possibility of engaging another law enforcement mentor towards the end of the year. So, if you like, we’re operating with a 60 percent complement of our staff but when you look at what’s been done already on the ground, I think one can safely say that a lot of good progress has been done in these past seven months.


How does the relationship work between you and the countries that you are helping and those that have yet to come?
Latu: Well, for these things, we have to prioritise as we are not the only providers of technical assistance in the region. There are other donor agencies that are also providing assistance on these matters. So we have to prioritise in terms of countries that we have targeted and our assistance to them and whatever their needs are.
For example, in the case of Vanuatu, the work that we are doing there is in response to recommendations that were made by the APG (Asia Pacific Money Laundering Group) Mutual Evaluation of Vanuatu in 2005.
That Evaluation identified certain areas requiring assistance. When we discussed this with the Vanuatu authorities, they knew that they had to do something. So we suggested that we provide assistance in reviewing some of their AML/CTF legislations, including Regulations. PALP has developed some draft amendments in a number of areas. So that’s what we’ve done for Vanuatu. In respect of Tonga, a Mutual Evaluation by the APG later on this year was planned. But before they ventured into that, I think they did the right thing by approaching donor agencies such as PALP, asking for help. I think it’s a good sign when countries ask for help before they actually go for these Mutual Evaluations. It is often the case that countries only ask for help after the Mutual Evaluations have been carried out. But in this case, Tonga was seeking help to try and assess where it was. Tonga is also trying and put in place necessary mechanisms by way of legislation before the Mutual Evaluation. So these are just some examples of countries that look for our assistance in terms of legislations, but as I said, it’s all based on where the priorities are and the priorities are all based on whether these countries have either undergone Mutual Evaluations or are in the process of going through Mutual Evaluations. And that in itself is a start, which helps determine where resources can be applied and finances can be diverted to.

What is the situation with Forum island countries, in terms of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing legislations? And whom do we benchmark our status against?
Latu: Your question poses a number of different issues. You’ve mentioned the word “benchmark”. Well, there are the benchmarks that are developed and established internationally and are recognised internationally for countries to comply with. The international standards, in terms of money laundering and terrorist financing are actually developed by the Financial Action Task Force, which is an international organization based in France. It develops international standards with the view that they would help countries take actions to remove certain weaknesses or remove certain vulnerabilities in their anti money laundering and counter terrorist regime. If countries put into place the right mechanisms and appropriate measures, these standards cover a whole range of areas. We don’t have time to discuss all of that but I can say just by way of overview that the standards cover the legal, the regulatory or the financial sector and the law enforcement sectors. So in terms of legal measures, for example, countries are expected to put in place legislations that, in the first instance, at least should criminalize money laundering and terrorist financing. And also define what money laundering is– in some cases, countries are not able to prosecute effectively because the legislation does not provide effectively for the criminalizing of money laundering and therefore, there is no sound legal basis for them to prosecute successfully. So I guess the first step that countries need to do in terms of legislation is to make sure that the legislation provides them with the ability to criminalise money laundering and financing terrorist and also to provide them with the ability to prosecute successfully. This is not only the case in the Pacific. Most countries have legislations, some probably much stronger than others. But you can have all the best legislations in the world, yet if you don’t enforce them, they will mean nothing. The issue here therefore is not so much just putting legislations on the books. It’s what you do with the legislations that I believe is the key t measure for whether a country is successful or not. A country may be said to have a strong anti money laundering and counter terrorist financing regime depending on whether they’re actually implementing those legislations and not just saying: ‘well, here’s a piece of legislation’. I think there is a certain temptation there for countries to just show a whole list of legislations being enacted and passed but then the issue is: ‘is it being used effectively?’ And that, I believe is the key questions, not just for Pacific island countries but for all countries when you look at combating money laundering and countering terrorist financing.

Have Pacific island countries reached that stage of criminalizing money laundering and terrorist financing?
Latu: Well, it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Most countries in the Pacific now have that but there are still some weaknesses where certain offences are not defined as being predicate offences for money laundering. It’s very important that the legislation doesn’t just criminalize money laundering but that it is able to have a much wider, broader coverage. At the moment, the international standard is that all serious crimes must be predicate offences for money laundering. And some countries need to step up to that mark. So, you know, it is not a matter of us just saying: ‘we hereby are defining money laundering as such and such’. Money laundering is proceeds of crime and the issue is, what offences must be covered under money laundering? And the international standards say, at the most, that it’s all serious crimes. So there’s a lot of awareness that need to be done. I also mentioned the ability of countries to also prosecute effectively. Well, a whole draft of measures is needed in order to get there. First of all, you need to make sure that your law enforcement officials, your prosecutors and other personnel are trained properly.
And these are very technical areas. If you don’t get it right, then you’ll be wasting your resources. In the end, the countries have got to have the ability to be able to trace, track, seize, confiscate and even forfeit proceeds of crime. These are important factors. It is one thing to criminalize money laundering but if you don’t have the ability to seize, confiscate and forfeit, then you may end up convicting the criminals while their assets remain in a safe place. So it is not about just trying to get the criminals behind bars, it’s also about efforts to get to their assets, that dirty money. You know most criminals are prepared to go to jail, as long as they know that their millions are stacked away safely. So the whole approach to money laundering has to be different. You have to ensure that the criminals doesn’t prefer to go to jail, although, you know, criminal justice would require that they dearly pay for what they do. But all the processes that I’m trying to explain now have to be broader than that. There must be disincentive so that when criminals get involved in criminal activities, they know that they will go to jail and also lose everything. They would know that whatever it is they had obtained illegally, the law is strong enough to take that away from them. And that’s where most countries are not at. So there is a whole range of measures that countries need to import into their legislations, not just simply criminalizing money laundering and financial terrorism but having the legislation that gives them the ability to deal with those tainted assets.

Capacity building must be an important factor then? What is PALP doing in regards to this?
Latu: Yes, capacity building and training is a very important aspect. We have small countries here in the Pacific where you will find, for example, the attorney generals’ offices will be staffed by a small number of people. Of course it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but in a particularly small jurisdiction, you may have maybe four or five state solicitors and lawyers that deal with, not just one or two things, but a whole range of different things. This is unlike bigger countries in New Zealand, Australia, where you have attorney general’s office have specific departments that deal specifically with certain areas. In Australia, for example in the Attorney General’s office, there is a group of lawyers that deal specifically with mutual legal assistance and/or extradition issues only. We don’t have that capacity in our small countries in the Pacific. We have four or five lawyers dealing with everything. So we need to have people that specifically deal AML and CTF issues. The other problem is that there’s always a high turnover in the public sector so even when we get to training, whether it be prosecutors or law enforcement officials, they don’t hang around too long because obviously the lure of greener pastures elsewhere tend to draw them away. So we have that perennial problem of high turnover in the Pacific. But it shouldn’t stop us from providing training for law enforcement officials and prosecutors in the financial sector because there are key stakeholders and they’re the frontline in terms of the fight against money laundering and financing terrorism. So it’s very important that we do maintain on-going training for these small jurisdictions.

How much of PALP’s work consist of delivering training needs? Or are there other areas where Pacific island countries are being assisted by the programme?
Latu: I suppose I can describe our program delivery as two pronged. The first one is what we call the in-country on-site mentoring, which is a proven method of actually imparting capacity building and skills to local counterparts and unlike other donor agencies at the moment, I think we are the only ones operating in that way.
We have, as I said, our legal mentor based in Tonga, our law enforcement officer based in Vanuatu and when they go to a country, they spend up to four weeks at a time. So they just don’t go there and lecture at people and then fly out, like most consultants do.
They actually spend time on the ground and they actually show people how things ought to be done. Then they do follow up to see that it is being done properly so, you know, the concept of mentoring, when it’s applied in a very practical way, has enormous benefits for those on the ground. This is complemented by our regional training initiatives, which I had spoken about earlier.
Our training initiatives are very different in the sense that it’s very practical in its approach and we do have presentations based on, I suppose you could say, real life scenarios. We take real cases that have actually happened in the region and we use them as examples where law enforcement and prosecutors are actually trained to apply their skills. The training is very hands-on and because of the nature of the work, it has to be. It’s operational in nature.
So, it’s very practical-orientated and the skills imparted are very useful, for example we are training law enforcement officials to identify certain banking documents and its significance in tracing laundered money. You know, when you’re trying to trace the money trail, one of the areas where you’ve got to go first is the bank.
So you go to a bank, and the bank says: ‘well, I can’t give you this’, then what do you do next? We train them to then think of what the next option is. And obviously the next step is to get a search warrant. So we show them how to draft a search warrant.
When you get a bank document, well, what do you do? You get the bank document and it’s so full of numbers and figures and you say: ‘well, how do I make way of this?’ So we teach them to analyse those financial documents, which then enables them to a judgement. These, you see, are hands on practical training that you don’t give to people by lecturing.
You actually teach them on a very hands-on, practical and very operational level. That’s the kind of training we’re imparting to the officials in the region. So the regional training initiative is a very important part of our programme and we have a number of them lined up. We have one for the judges next week (May week 2, 2007) in Palau for several Forum member countries and we’re hoping to do another but then that’s mostly for jurisdictions up in the North and we’re hoping to do another one for jurisdictions further South.
It’s mainly because of the cost-benefit factors; it’s very expensive to take everybody up North so we’re basically looking at dividing up the region into one up North and one down South. But that’s for judges. Then we have a training workshop for investigators/law enforcement officials in Samoa in July. And then we have one for the prosectors in September hopefully in NZ so, and the idea is that we don’t just train them there but hopefully, we can then follow up with those particular officials after the workshops.
The regional training initiatives complements what we are doing in terms of the in-country, on-site mentoring. They go together so both methods are important in order for us to achieve our objectives.

The U.S State Bureau recently released INCSR 2007, its 24th International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR). It has obviously put four PICs on its “Jurisdiction of Concern” watch-list and is keeping a tab on nine others. How do we see ourselves in terms of that report?
Latu: Well, that’s a very interesting report. I mean obviously there are some real issues that are of concern to the U.S, that has made it list these countries in this way. All I can say is that you can’t ignore what’s in the report. I think PICs should take cognisance of what’s in the report. Perhaps, it doesn’t always have to be a negative way of looking at things. Obviously an automatic response from those countries that are monitored or listed there is being one of prime concern: ‘how come we are on the list?’ But to look at it and say: ‘OK, what does the report say? Could it be an opportunity for us to assess our own counter money laundering and terrorist financing, and see what are the weaknesses or vulnerabilities?’ The thing is there is a tendency for countries – especially after they came off the FATF blacklist a couple of years ago – to take it easy. A few Pacific island countries came up on that list, including some who are now listed by the US. As soon as they came off, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and did nothing any more. They felt everything was OK. But you know, money-launderers don’t stay in the same place. They are very creative, inventive criminal minds and they are going to come up with new ideas, new techniques to launder money, to finance terrorism so, whatever we have in place right now may not be enough to deal with that problem next year or in years to come. So our anti money laundering system and counter terrorist financing regimes have to evolve, they have to change. They cannot stay in the same place. Otherwise they’re going to be left behind. And that I think is something that PICs have got to be aware of. Just because your legislation was in tune two years ago, doesn’t mean it’s going to be fine next year. We have to keep up with international standards.

When will PALP be fully staffed?
Latu: Well, we’ve been trying to recruit a regulatory expert and an expert in the financial sector and then hopefully by the end of the year, we’ll have another law enforcement expert up North. But we are not waiting for the full complement of our staff. We are still forging ahead and we’re doing work with whatever resources we have on hand.

What about funding support. Are you happy with it or do you need more or are you going to get more?
Latu: All I can say at this stage is that this programme is for four years. We have confirmed funding for two and we’re working on funding for the whole four year period so it’s useful to know if you have the funding for the whole four years but at this point, we don’t want to let that hold us back. We just want to get on with our work and do it.

So what happens after four years, when the program expires?
Latu: We may review after four years. It’s up to the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and the donor (U.S State Department) to decide what they want to do. I can’t really say at this point. It could be extended. The important factor is the focus of the program. So it’s premature to say what’s going to happen at the end of four years.

Finally you were talking about other countries coming on line to use your assistance in their AML/CTF legislations. What are some of these countries?
Latu: We have Tonga, Vanuatu, Palau and Republic of Marshall Islands. We are awaiting further information from Fiji and Cook Islands, Samoa and the Solomon Islands. We have discussed a number of areas where we could possibly provide some assistance. You know, they are open to the idea and there are other donors also offering assistance so, it’s a matter of coordinating between the donors. It is these countries to come back to us and say they want us to help. There are specific countries that we’ve identified in terms of certain areas where legislations could be improved. We’re trying to make contact with them in the next couple of weeks and if there is a positive response, then we’re hoping we’ll expand our programme of assistance to them as well.
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NOTE: This is the original transcript of this interview, published in the Islands Business Magazine as: Q&A KOSI LATU, COORDINATOR PACIFIC ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING PROJECT. EFFECTIVE LEGISLATION TO COUNTER MONEY LAUNDERING, pp 40,41, JULY 2007 edition.

Islands Business is the flagship publication of Islands Business International.