Police arrest former registrar of companies

FORMER Registrar of Companies and chairman of the Securities Commission Alex Tongaiyu has been arrested again for allegedly forging documents of Commerce and Industry Minister Wera Mori to approve his application for a top post, National Fraud and Anti-Corruption director Chief Superintendent Mathew Damaru says.
He had earlier been arrested and charged with a similar offence when he had allegedly forged former Commerce and Industry Minister Richard Maru’s signature to become the Registrar of Companies and chairman of the Securities Commission.
His first case is still pending.
Damaru said yesterday that Tongaiyu, 40, of Walumi village, Lake Kopiago, Hela, was charged with one count of forgery, one count of uttering and one count of conspiracy to defraud.
Tongaiyu was Registrar of Companies and chairman of Securities Commission of PNG when he allegedly committed the offences.
It is alleged that between April 10 and 14 last year, he and others in the Department of Commerce and Industry colluded and drafted a purported ministerial appointment and revoked the appointment of Christopher Hnanguie as chairman of the Securities Commission.
The documents were purportedly by Mori. The appointment was gazetted in the National Gazette number G249 on April 17, 2018.
At the time of this purported appointment, there was no vacancy for the position of the chairman as Hnanguie was the duly appointed sitting chairman confirmed by the National Court.
That purported appointment resulted in two individuals claiming to the chairman’s position.