O’Neill cleared of UBS allegations

THE National Court on Friday cleared former prime minister Peter O’Neill of allegations that he gave false evidence during the inquiry into a K3 billion loan the Government obtained from Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) in 2014.
On March 6, 2014, the National Executive Council (NEC) had approved a K3 billion loan from UBS to buy a 10 per cent equity in Oil Search Limited (now Santos) – a joint venture partner in the US$19 billion (about K70 billion) PNG LNG project.
O’Neill who was the prime minister was criticised for by-passing Parliament to obtain the loan.
In Sept 2017, the Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL) sold its 10 percent stake in Oil Search Ltd. Sir Moi Avei, who was the KPHL chairman, said: “The board has made a commercial decision to divest itself of the Oil Search shares.”
On May 30, 2019, Tari-Pori MP James Marape was elected in Parliament as prime minister. The next month (June, 2019), Marape announced that a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) would investigate the UBS loan deal.
The CoI which cost about K30million carried out its investigation from 2019 to 2022. O’Neill testified in that inquiry.
CoI chairman Sir Salamo Injia handed over its final report to Marape on April 6, 2022.
When Marape received the report, he said that those implicated in the loan deal would be criminally prosecuted.
On April 21, 2022, the COI’s UBS loan report was tabled in Parliament by Marape. O’Neill at that time questioned the credibility of the UBS loan inquiry saying it was the most expensive ever in the country. He described the inquiry as a political witch-hunt, with a lack of independence in appointing the commissioners from day one.
On June 12, last year, police arrested and charged O’Neill for giving false evidence under oath during UBS loan inquiry.
O’Neill said after his arrest that he was happy that they charged him, so that the matter could be sorted in court.
On Nov 6, 2023, the Committal Court in Waigani ordered that O’Neill stand trial in the National Court.
When O’Neill appeared in National Court in Waigani on Friday, the lawyer from the Public Prosecutor’s office told Judge Teresa Berrigan that they would not prosecute O’Neill because “the evidence was insufficient”.