Tonga’s Prime Minister Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa in a public statement suggested he is unhappy with the guilty verdict pronouncement by the Supreme Court on his close friends ‘Etuate and Akosita Lavulavu, for three counts of fraud.
In a speech given in Tongan, he announced there will be an appeal, and said that any judgments made on his friends are simply judgments made by imperfect humans. He urged the public not to judge until the judiciary process of appeal is completed.
The Prime Minister, Rev. Dr. Tu’i’onetoa, who is also a Minister of Religion went on to quote scripture and stated emphatically that judgments made by man is only made by imperfect human beings. “Only Jesus is without fault… we are all sinners,” he said.
The implications of this public tirade by the Prime Minister soon after his friends were convicted for fraud, was that he did not respect the Court’s decision.
He went ahead to quote from the Constitution’s Clause 23, that the judicial process must be allowed to come to its conclusion before anything is done to his Cabinet Minister as well as her husband who is his chief advisor and deputy chair of his PAK Party.
The Prime Minister was speaking out against calls on him to fire his Cabinet Minister, Akosita Lavulavu, who has been convicted for fraud.
There were previous calls for him to have the Minister step aside until the Supreme Court case was concluded. But he said that the Minister had the right to be proven guilty in Court before any disciplinary action is taken.
Now that the Minister has been proven guilty, the Prime Minister announced there will be an appeal against the judgment of the Supreme Court, suggesting he does not respect that judgment, and he is trying to defend the delusional innocence of his close friends.
The public perception in Tonga this week is that the Prime Minister may be trying to hide something; questions are asked why the Lavulavus have such a hold on him in the face of glaring evidence of guilt.
The Lavulavus were found guilty on Friday 4 June, in a case that has gone through several delays for months, until the Chief Justice ordered there will not be any further delays to the case.
Never in recent memory has a leader of Government in Tonga places so much effort in defending convicted criminals. ‘Etuate Lavulavu was himself convicted of fraud in 2003 in the United States, after seven years of trying to avoid prosecution.
He was also convicted in Tonga in 2015 for bribery and overspending on his political campaign, resulting in being stripped of his Ministerial position and disqualified from Parliament.
Now he is convicted again for fraud, only this time, his wife is with him as a co-committer of the offense.
On three separate dates, ‘Unuaki ‘o Tonga Royal Institute (UTRI) applied for funds from the Technical Vocational Educational Training Grant (TVET) with a false representation of the number of students at the school.
The Ministry of Education relied on that false information and paid the money, amounting to $558,600. The Judge said that on examination of the evidence, “I can be sure that $536,940 was fraudulently obtained.”
In a routine audit of UTRI in 2015, discrepancies and irregularities were uncovered. One of the discrepancies was the names of 286 people who had never applied to join UTRI but had their details put on the application forms.
There were also 35 names of people who did not exist, and many more irregularities uncovered in the audit. The conclusion was that only 19 out of 942 were eligible (a subsidy of $600 per head).
Akosita Lavulavu was the Director of the school, and her husband ‘Etate was the President of UTRI. The Judge said: “Claims that Mr. Lavulavu was not responsible for the applications as his wife are just silly.”
“They were in this together, just as they ran the school together… What happened to the money on receipt and that they disposed of it makes this glaringly obvious.”
An example of the worst sort of dishonesty
This is how Justice Cooper described the case of the Lavulavu’s. He said in his judgment that “the conduct of these defendants would be disgraceful in anyone, but for a member of Cabinet, and a man, who used his political connections and position to facilitate these frauds, goes beyond just criminally reprehensible.”
“This is an example of the worst sort of dishonesty; people who should be working earnestly for constituents but use their position, connections and influence to steal from a fund for the education of children of this Kingdom and then in front of me in court, twist the evidence and lean on witnesses to try to extricate themselves.”
“It is a particularly egregious aspect of this case that both defendants have tried to corrupt the trial process by buying off at least one [of the] witnesses,” Justice Cooper said in his 126 page ruling.
It is natural for fraudulent people to use lies to cover up and justify their criminal actions, but Justice Cooper was very specific in pointing out how lies were used to try and cover-up their actions.
It was brought up in Court that when Akosita Lavulavu was appointed in October 2019 as a Cabinet Minister, one of her first actions was to hire one of their key witnesses by giving her a job as her PA in the Ministry of Infrastructure. Muna Nasilai, 29, was employed by Akosita. She previously worked at the UTRI office.
Justice Cooper said that Nasilai deliberately misled the Court by lying that she was a clerk at MOI, before it was found out during the trial that she was actually Akosita’s PA.
The Judge said that another witness, Miss Tovi, was forced to admit some truths but sought to spin them in a dishonest way. Muna Nasilai and Simione Tahi, the Judge said, were examples of witnesses determined to lie to the Court for both Mr. and Mrs. Lavulavu.
Witnesses were coached to lie, said the Judge. And then he referred to Dr. ‘Aisake Eke, a former Minister of Finance, who had chosen to be a witness for the Lavulavus.
Justice Cooper said: “Dr. Eke provided no proof as to the former claim and when he made the latter, all his credibility was gone, it then being so obvious he was not desirous of telling the truth.”
Sentencing for the Lavulavus is set for Friday 2 July. In the meantime they are ordered not to leave Tongatapu, and to report to the Police Station three times a week.
As Tonga’s biggest fraud case continues to fascinate the public, the Prime Minister whose political career seems to be dependent on what happens to the Lavulavus, has revealed his hand: he is definitely on the side of his convicted friends.