May 24, 2006

By Michael Field

A elusive Chinese-New Zealander, a couple of weightlifters turned politicians, a brace of dubious presidents and a small desk in a Brisbane hotel are the ingredients behind one of the more intriguing scams to hit the South Pacific.

Also in the mix are the Russian Mafia and Al Qaeda.

Nauru , long caught up activities verging on the criminal, is cleaning house and in an extraordinary Nauru Parliament select committee report, they’ve fingered one time Speaker and Justice Minister Russell Kun and say much of the money, up to US$11 million, has disappeared.

Nauru , a 21 square kilometre single island home to 12,000 people, is a wasteland after most of its phosphate rich topsoil was stripped off and sent to Australian and New Zealand farms. Its people were among the world’s richest per capita, but lost millions in shadowy schemes.

With the money running out Nauru went into passport and citizenship selling and off-shore banking. At one point it had 450 offshore banks all registered to a single government post box. The Russian Central Bank claimed over US$70 billion of Mafia money passed through Nauru .

The 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York and the 2002 Bali bombing led in early 2003 to US Secretary of State Colin Powell condemning "the indiscriminate sale of Nauru 's passports to persons having no genuine allegiance, or substantial ties to your state."

The US State Department warned "not only criminals purchase economic citizenships. Terrorists do as well."

Nauru ’s passport schemes were handled by Trans Pacific Development Company Ltd (TPDC). Headed by a Chinese-American Paul Little in Washington , it had offices in Hong Kong and Macau . Their Macau agent, Winnie Ye, was made Nauru Trade Commissioner there, a Chinese territory without any trade with Nauru .

After 9/11, TPDC lawyer Philip Gagner said there was ‘’ no evidence that any terrorists, from al Qaeda or anywhere else, have obtained Nauru passports’’. Ye told a Macau newspaper that the allegations were false and said ‘’ Nauru has very strict immigration rules’’.

The select committee report makes it plain Nauru had no idea where passports were going. Hundreds of passports may have been sold, for between $US15,000 to $US35,000 each.

Nauru had a bewildering array of presidents, among them Bernard Dowiyogo, Rene Harris and Kinza Clodumar, all in on the various schemes.

The committee found Dowiyogo and Harris had each taken out loans from TPDC – one for US$675,000 and the second for US$100,000 -- and it said these were not in Nauru ’s interests.

Dowiyogo had been president when the US launched its strongest attack on Nauru . In January 2003 Dowiyogo – like most Nauruans a diabetic – had a heart attack after eating a rich Chinese meal. The US offered him medical treatment and while in his hospital bed he was persuaded to sign an executive order terminating the offshore banking system. He died soon after.

Ludwig Scotty followed as president but was toppled later in the year. Last year he won back the office and is now leading the corruption probe.

In his first term in 2003 he made Russell Kun, married to a New Zealander, his Justice Minister.

The deal with TPDC was terminated and Kun, a former professional weightlifter, quietly set up an alternative passport scheme with a company known as Century Sino Holdings, nominally based in Hong Kong and headed by one Huang Yuetang, a former TPDC agent.

Kun said Huang was also known as Tommy Wong, the name on his New Zealand passport. No other details of Wong are known, and Nauru is seeking Interpol assistance.

On June 23, 2003 Wong and Kun checked into the four-star Royal Albert Hotel in Brisbane . Also there was the now dead Nauru Police Commissioner Paul Aingimea and principal immigration officer, Vincent Eoaeo.

‘’I was given a ticket and told that we are going, we had a trip,’’ Eoaeo told the committee.

‘’Those who gave me my ticket was my minister. And me, I do not really know who funded us.’’

Century Sino paid for the trip.

He was given documents to sign.

‘’So we signed together, I and then the Police Commissioner and he (Kun) finally, that is how we did it,’’ Eoaeo said, saying the table was too small.

‘’We sat there and we two signed, we get off then his turn. The desk was the thing…. It is like this you sign yours first, and he watches while you are signing…, Aingimea signs his, he watches then when he finishes signing his then he (Kun) signs his.’’

The select committee says it was illegal and they were not able to work out how many documents had been signed, or where the money went.

Soon after the Scotty government fell and Kun was out of cabinet, but on August 22, 2003, one William Ng was found at Nauru airport with a briefcase of documents, including 16 passports destined for sale in China and 21 ‘’police clearance certificates’’ signed by Aingimea and Kun.

Chief Secretary Marlene Moses was called to the airport and told Ng he was under-arrest, but Aingimea stepped and said he could go, but without the documents.

‘’The Chinese national offered little resistance when handing over the documents but was clearly flustered when the passports were seized,’’ Moses said. ‘’He did try to explain that the Chinese passport holders were anxiously waiting for their passports but his desperate plea to carry the documents was denied’’

Alan Ross, an Australian now heading Nauru Police, told the select committee that they could not discount the proposition that the documents are part of a larger criminal enterprise.

‘’The obtaining of the Nauruan documentation may well be a precursor to some other criminal enterprise.’’

The committee said the granting of some Nauru citizenships to people who were escorted to Nauru by Mr Wong ‘’ assumes criminal dimensions.’’

The select committee also looked at the earlier passport operation and went to Macau to talk with Winnie Ye and according to their report “desperate attempts were made … to contact her’’ but she would not meet them. Later they spoke to her on the phone but her response was threatening.

One of the MPs was Marcus Stephen, an Olympic and Commonwealth Games weightlifting medallist, but he was of little use. As the committee related, after speaking with Ye, authorities in Macau ‘’warned the delegation of their security risk and advised that the delegation cannot avoid the fact that serious risk of danger did exist during their visit to Macau .”

Kun told the committee he could not recall how many documents he signed or where the cash was. The committee said he was evasive and misleading.

The committee said the money from the New Zealand-Chinese Wong could not be traced.

‘’The committee has every reason to believe that (Kun) is the beneficiary of the moneys … and thus strongly recommends that a criminal case be filed….

‘’Since this is a crime of trans-national nature the assistance should be sought from Interpol to contact Century Sino for any recoveries to be done from them.’’

Kun, who is now an assistant public defender in the Marshall Islands , could not be contacted this week but earlier on Radio Australia denied the allegations.

‘’They've slandered, they've smeared and slandered my name, thrown mud at my name and my family. I was shocked to see that out….. Mind you, I've got a lot of political enemies, even though I'm out of parliament. I think they just try to smear my name before the elections in November next year.’’

Copyright: Michael Field