Maladina free

 By DEMAS TIEN

THE Supreme Court has acquitted Jimmy Maladina, the former chairman of the National Provident Fund board of trustees, of charges relating to the use of K2.6 million belonging to the Fund.

A panel of three judges — Justice Les Gavara-Nanu, Justice Don Sawong and Justice Terrence Higgins — ruled that the National Court which convicted him last May on the charges of conspiracy to defraud and misappropriation had made errors in its judgment.

The judges ruled that the prosecution failed to provide sufficient evidence to convict Maladina.

They ordered that the National Court decision handed down by Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika to convict Maladina be quashed and his bail money of K10,000 be refunded.

The judges ruled that the prosecution failed to provide sufficient evidence to convict Maladina.

They ordered that the National Court decision handed down by Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika to convict Maladina be quashed and his bail money of K10,000 be refunded.

Sawong and Higgins stated in their decision that the prosecution’s evidence did not show that the payments made by Kumagai Gumi Ltd were illegal. They found that the prosecutions had not proved that Fund was defrauded, nor that Kumagai Gumi Ltd had been defrauded by its employees.

Gavara-Nanu ruled that the evidence presented to the trial judge showed that there were flaws in the prosecution’s case.

“With great respect, I find the judgment of the trial judge was fundamentally flawed due to series of errors resulting from conjecture and mis-directions as to the law and the relevant principles,” Gavara-Nanu said.

He said Maladina was found guilty because of the wrong findings of the fact by the National Court.

The National Court on May 22 last year found Maladina guilty of the two charges.

It ruled that the money paid by Kumagai Gumi Ltd to Carter Newell Lawyers for Maladina and a Ken Yapane totalling K2,650,000 were improper payments.

Kumagai Gumi Ltd was engaged by the Fund to build the NPF Tower in Port Moresby between Oct 1998 and Oct 2000.

Maladina was the managing director of Carter Newell Lawyers before he was appointed chairman of the Fund board of trustees in Jan 1999 by then Prime Minister Bill Skate.

The National Court convicted Maladina for conspiring with others to defraud Fund of K2,650,000 by increasing the cost of construction of the NPF Tower in Port Moresby between Nov 1, 1998 and Oct 10, 2000.

He was also convicted for misappropriating the K2,650,000 between Feb 26, 1999 and July 30, 1999.

Sawong and Higgins in their ruling said: “In our view, the evidence called by the State did not exclude the reasonable hypothesis that the payments to Kumagai were legitimately made.

“It did not establish that the payments made by Kumagai were for some corrupt reason and not due and owing legitimately to the recipients. It follows that the State had not proved that NPF was defrauded nor that Kumagai had been defrauded by its employees, had that allegation been made.

“It follows that the findings of guilt must be set aside and verdicts of acquittal entered. We would only add that had the verdict of guilty been sustained on the second count, the finding of guilt on the first count would been duplicitous.”