Addressing a Sydney crowd during a recent visit, the head of Papua New Guinea’s new anti-corruption unit Task Force Sweep likened Australia to the “Cayman Islands” for its role in turning a blind eye to investments of PNG government corruption money on Australian shores.
Sam Koim’s presentation at the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre major reporters meeting “Money laundering in Australia of the proceeds of corruption in PNG” called on Australian authorities to up their game in combating money laundering and cross-border corruption.
He laid out investment figures he said could not possibly have derived from legitimate funds, raising the question “Is the banking industry in Australia doing business with ‘dirty’ money?”
Figures obtained by Gorethy Kenneth for the PNG Post-Courier in May this year showed that six known PNG politicians have combined property investment in Cairns of A$11.5 million, and according to Asian Development Bank economist Aaron Batten, PNG’s overall investment in Australia has reached A$1.2 billion.
Link to the detailed news: click here
Link to the detailed speech by Sam Koim (Chairman of the PNG Anti-Corruption Taskforce Sweep): click here