Man appears in court for money laundering charge

A MAN appeared before the Waigani National Court yesterday on a money laundering charge.
Edward Bae, of Hula village, Central, appeared before Justice Teresa Berrigan.
Bae worked as a check-in officer for Westpac Bank in Port Moresby between Nov 10, 2017, and Jan 19, 2018, when it was alleged he obtained money from Westpac Bank’s commission account through 21 transactions which had no supporting documents or approvals from unit heads.
Bae was alleged to have defrauded the bank of a total of K72,380.30.
It was alleged that Bae debited commission accounts and credited various amounts to his brother-in-law John Kila’s account.
A copy of an amended indictment of Bae’s charges, obtained by The National yesterday showed that the state alleged that his actions in transferring the monies was a criminal offence.
Lawyer Lily Jack, from the office of the public solicitor told the court that Bae breached section 508B(1) of the criminal code (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing).
Justice Berrigan heard the matter yesterday after looking through the depositions of the case.