Expatriate lawyer charged with fraud to appear in court

AN expatriate lawyer, who was re-arrested and charged recently with 95 counts of conspiring to defraud a company and misappropriating more than K56,200, will have his matter heard tomorrow at the Waigani Committal Court.
Erik Andersen, 47, of Auckland, New Zealand, who is on a K10,000 bail, will appear before magistrate Sinclair Gora for mention.
State prosecutors confirmed yesterday that the charges laid against Andersen were excessive and lengthy.
However, they said they were able to go through them and prepare submissions for the hearing tomorrow.
Andersen, a senior lawyer with Gadens law firm, was arrested last year and charged with 49 counts of alleged conspiracy to defraud a sum of K1.3 million belonging to Nesinel No.77, a subsidiary of the Yama Group of companies.
However, the charges were later set aside pending further investigations.
Andersen was re-arrested last month when he and an expatriate banker John Maddison were accused to debiting a sum of K56,252.63 from a loan account of the same company.
Maddison, who heads the asset and recovery section of the Bank South Pacific, was also arrested earlier and charged with 96 counts on the same offences and is also out on K10,000 bail.
His matter was set for Nov 22 for mention at the Waigani Committal Court.