Banker’s fraud case adjourned

A SENIOR expatriate banker, who has been charged with 96 counts of fraud and misappropriation of about K1.3 million, had his case adjourned to early next month by the Waigani committal court recently.
John Maddison, 57, of Melbourne, Australia, was arrested and charged in June by the police fraud squad after a lengthy investigation.
Police alleged that between 2001 and 2008, Maddison, who was the head of the Assets and Recovery section of Bank South Pacific at the time, allegedly conspired with a law firm engaged by the bank to prosecute some of its matters and debited approximately K1.3 million from the account of Nesinol Namba 77, a subsidiary of the Yama Group of Companies.
Maddison was arrested when the company owner and former MP Peter Yama, lodged a complaint with the police fraud squad, who then investigated the matter.
Maddison was charged with 50 counts of conspiracy, 45 counts of misappropriation and one count of falsifying documents, and was released on K10,000 bail awaiting his court appearance.
He appeared last Friday and his matter was further adjourned to Nov 2 to give time to state prosecutors to look through the charges filed and prepare well before prosecuting the matter.
A senior lawyer, Erik Anderson, 47, of Auckland, New Zealand, was also re-arrested last month in relation to a similar matter.
It is alleged that Anderson misappropriated a sum of K56,252.63 from the loan account of the same company, Nesinol Namba 77.
Anderson was first arrested last year and charged with 45 counts of alleged conspiracy to defraud involving the same amount of about K1.3 million, belonging to Nesinel No 77 Ltd.
But these charges were withdrawn pending further investigations until he was re-arrested late last month and charged with 95 counts of fraud and misappropriation.
He is alleged to have conspired with Maddison to commit those offences.
He was also released on a K10,000 bail and is awaiting his court appearance.