Charges to proceed against lawyer, banker

POLICE prosecution yesterday told the Waigani Committal Court presided by Principle Magistrate Sinclaire Gora that there was sufficient evidence against both private lawyer Eric Andersen and banker John Maddison to refer their matters to the National Court.
Their argument was based on the charges which police had laid.
Police relied on three of the security documents held by the bank which they (police) claimed were falsified.
The two expatriates were charged with 50 counts of conspiring to defraud, 45 counts of misappropriation and one count of falsifying documents appeared.
Both appeared before the Committal Court last Wednesday and made no case submissions through their lawyer, Kerenga Kua of Posman Kua Aisi Lawyers.
But yesterday, the prosecution replied to their “no case submission” and alleged that Andersen and Maddison were involved in creating fraudulent documents which contributed to trying to get payments out of the Yama Group of Companies.
Mr Kua argued that both Andersen and Maddison “were acting strictly in accordance with a contract freely signed by Yama and his associate companies”.
“It was not a crime where a party is acting in accordance with a civil contract (Securities),” Mr Kua said, adding that there was no criminal intention in their actions when carrying out their duties in recouping loan repayments from the Yama Group of Companies from which the Neisenal 77 Ltd was one of the 17 security contracts freely signed by the Yama Group company director.
Principal Magistrate Mr Gora reserved his ruling on these submissions to Feb 10.