The Special Police Forensic Criminal Investigation Team (SPFCIT) arrested former Kiunga Branch Manager Ivy David as the combined forensic and criminal investigation into the alleged misappropriation and stealing of K268 million belonging to the 147,000 people of 158 CMCA Communities perpetrated by management, directors, and lawyers of a purported entity called Ok Tedi Fly River Development Foundation Limited (OTFRDF).
The Police Team headed by Commissioner of Police David Manning undertook the high-profile investigation over the last ten (10) months and is currently continuing.
The people who were alleged to have committed the significant financial crime include the Chief Executive Officer of OTFRDF Samson Jubi, lawyer Gregory James Sheppard of Young and Williams Lawyers, and Directors of OTFRDF namely Steven Bagari, Sisa Baidam, Abel Daruko, Michael Lam, Jacob Kabogi, Boston Kasiman, Edna Oai, Rex Salle, and Annie Smerewai.
The Directors, Kasiman, Oai and Smerewai have been charged with a total of 15 counts of charges consisting of five counts of misappropriation, five counts of false pretence and five counts of conspiracy each.
Police learnt that on June 17, 2021, Sheppard and Jubi approached Ivy who was then Bank of South Pacific Limited Branch Manager for Retail Kiunga (Western Province) and induced her to print bank statements for a local firm Pape Accountants & Business Advisors owned by Special Constable Andy Peperaija Pape and also for three other members of SPFCIT namely Detective Sergeant Philip Yonge, Detective Senior Constable Derick Tangua and Detective Senior Constable Belden Robert.
Police obtained Court Orders, searched BSP and confirmed that the bank statements for the members of SPFCIT were illegally obtained by Ivy whilst she was working as BSP Retail Manager for Kiunga Branch and wilfully distributed to Jubi and Sheppard without the consent or authorization of the active bank account holders.
Police confirmed that BSP terminated Ivy’s employment with the bank on June 26, 2021, on the basis of serious misconduct and breach of BSP Financial Group Limited’s Policies and Procedures.
In light of the unlawful disclosure of the relevant bank account statements, both Police and BSP reviewed the conduct of the six (6) different bank accounts owned and operated by Ivy and confirmed that two payments totalling K13,000.00 were paid into her bank account via Internet Banking from the account of Mundi No.1 Limited which is operated by Jubi.
Police alleged that Ivy was bribed by Jubi and the relevant bank account statements were not released in good faith. Police further allege that the actions of Ivy violate the members of SPFCIT’s constitutionally guaranteed protections from arbitrary search and privacy including private records.
At 4:30pm on Monday 9th of August 2021, members of SPFCIT arrested and charged Sheppard for the third time in connection with the misappropriation and stealing of Western Province People’s Dividend Community Mine Continuation Trust Funds (WPPD CMCA). Sheppard was charged earlier with a total of eight counts of charges consisting of two counts of false pretense, two counts of conspiracy, two counts of misappropriation and two counts of money laundering.
On the recent arrest Sheppard was charged with three counts comprising of:
- Attempting to pervert the course of justice by filing Supreme Court proceeding (SCC (OS) No. 3 of 2021) after illegally obtaining BSP Financial Group Limited bank statements from Police expert witness Andy Peperaija Pape; and
- Forging a genuine document purporting to be a bank statement of Pape Accountants and Business Advisors by illegally printing the company bank statements from 1stAugust 2020 to 17 June 2021.
After the arrest of Sheppard, members of SPFCIT flew to Kiunga, Western Province and arrested Ivy at her home around 7:35am on 15th of August 2021. She was then taken to Kiunga Police Station and interviewed. During the interview Ivy allegedly told Police that she was pressured by Jubi and Sheppard to print the bank statements for Pape Accountants & Business Advisors, and she would like to provide a Confessional Statement and become a State Witness.
Ivy mentioned in her statement that on 17th of June 2021, Jubi continuously rang her throughout the day using an Australian telephone number and forced her to print bank statements for Pape Accountants & Business Advisors for a period covering 3rd August to June 17, 2021. She stated that even though it was against BSP Financial Group Limited’s Policy & Procedure, she went ahead and printed the bank statements around 4pm on the same day and passed them to her husband Mr Robin Moken who scanned the bank statements and emailed them to Jubi in Australia. She admitted that her employment with the bank was terminated as she had not acted in good faith.
Ivy also alleged that Jubi tricked her so that he could obtain the bank statements and pass them to Sheppard and Leader of Opposition Hon. Belden Namah, who used them to file a Supreme Court Application against the members of Special Police Forensic Criminal Investigation.
Police alleged that the bank statements were illegally obtained to construct a number of allegations against members of the Special Police Forensic Criminal Investigation Team particularly targeting Special Constable Andy Peperaija Pape and presented to the Courts.
It is important to note that the investigation conducted by Police is into the alleged misappropriation and stealing of K268 million rightfully belonging to about 147,000 people from 158 villages from the CMCA Communities located along Fly River Corridor in Western Province. The monies were allegedly misused by Jubi, Sheppard and Directors including Chairman Steven Bagari and others. Sheppard and three Directors of OTFRDF have been arrested. Jubi, Bagari and the other directors have evaded Police and are currently in hiding.